


Sudden Sensations

by ShortWork



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Emotions are trippy, F/M, Mystery, Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Game, Romance, lots of swearing, love interest is kind of a jerk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-02 09:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 74,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15793305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShortWork/pseuds/ShortWork
Summary: It’s been a year since the androids had won their freedom through peaceful protests, and their rights as citizens are being figured out in the courts. Connor and Hank are called in to investigate a mysterious death at the Eden Club, when Connor's software gets infected with a code change that allows him to feel pain... and pleasure. Hank takes him to a fiery android technician to get it fixed, but her... challenging personality triggers some very new sensations that Connor's not sure he wants removed.





	1. Chapter 1

Connor scanned the blue stained remains painting the corner of the Eden Club's private room. The body was so mangled it was almost unrecognizable as something that could have ever even resembled a person. Every time he visited a particularly violent crime scene, a small part of him wished he hadn't turned deviant. It had been much easier to do his job and investigate the body before he could feel empathy for his fellow machines. Repetition and study had numbed him to it a bit in the year since, but a scene like this was difficult for even the most seasoned examiner to take in.

"Jesus, if you guys can't keep your customers alive you're gonna start losing business, guy," Hank said to the proprietor. He took out a handkerchief to hold over his nose and mouth as he took in the gruesome display.

A charred human corpse lay tangled in blackened sheets in the middle of the bed, the fire recent enough that the body was still smoking. Android body parts were strewn across every corner of the room, the blue blood from its remains splattered across the walls. The smell of burnt flesh mixed with the metallic tang of boiled therium. There were fewer clean spots in the room than areas that had been covered in evidence.

"Vico. My name if Vico," the proprietor said. By his side, a platinum blonde android clad in a bob cut and a purple satin robe bearing the club logo stepped forward.

"This isn't the first time this has happened," she told Hank, her green eyes brimming with angry tears.

"Well, that's the thing," Vico said nervously. "Though no one was killed before. Not this way."

"That _what's_ happened?" Hank asked.

As Connor scanned the remains of the same android in the opposite corner of the room as the first, he began to recognize a blast pattern. He reconstructed the trajectory of the limbs, analyzed the splatter of therium along the walls behind the bed, and then stood up to give Hank his answer.

"This android exploded mid-coitus," he said, walking over to the bed to inspect the human body that had been caught in the blast.

"Sounds like the setup to a bad joke," Hank scowled. "And this has happened before?" he asked, turning back to Vico and the platinum android. "Exploding androids is a regular thing here?"

"Just- just a couple others," he replied. "One of the human girls got singed but no harm done."

" _Amber and Casey_ were harmed, Vico," the android angrily objected. "They _blew up._ "

"And you didn't think to call the police when your android employees started exploding?" Hank asked.

"They were together, you know, like _together_ together," Vico replied. "Figured it was just some kinky android shit gone wrong."

The human body on the bed was unidentifiable from a facial scan, so Connor had to open the mouth of the corpse to inspect his teeth. He stuck his fingers inside and felt around for the molars.

"Please tell me you aren't going to stick your fingers in your mouth," Hank said.

"I'm checking his dental records," Connor explained, scanning the public registry once he had imprinted the molars into his fingertips. "The victim was Robert Sinclair, age 47." He stood up and moved to wash his hands in the sink in the corner of the room. Discomfort with leaving human or android remains on his fingertips was another thing he had picked up after becoming deviant.

"Oh no, Bobby?" Vico said. "He was a regular customer." Connor had finished washing up and approached Vico.

"Under the android penal code 11164 you are required to report any damage or destruction of androids under your employment to the authorities as soon as you become aware of said damage," Connor said, his face grim.

"Now wait a minute," Vico stammered. "I didn't know I had to call in about exploding androids. Nobody even came looking for 'em. I figured I didn't have to report it if no one came."

"Nah, the android code doesn't get ratified for human citizens until January," Hank clarified. "Can't bring you in for the androids exploding on their own, but you can sure as shit be held accountable for this guy's death."

"I don't know why those other bots exploded!" Vico shouted. "I even dug through the body's source code to see if I could find any errors. All I found was this recently added bit that I couldn't figure out." He pulled a flat metal data syringe out of his pocket and held it up for them to see.

"We should have taken it to a professional, Vico," the platinum android cut.

"Too late for that now, we gotta shut this place down till your Tracis stop exploding," Hank replied. "Can't risk anyone else getting blown up."

"No, you can't!" Vico argued. "Now that I have to pay all the androids I can barely afford the overhead on this place. It'll put me out of business if I have to shut down, even for a little bit. Can't you just fix this code?"

"We don't know how long that's gonna take our guys back at the station," Hank said. "Could be weeks."

"I can't wait that long!" Vico gasped. He swung out his arm and injected the data syringe into the back of Connor's neck, pushing down on the plunger to transfer the code into his system.

"Fucking Christ!" Hank shouted, before lunging at Vico to tackle him to the floor. The platinum android shrieked and jumped back out of the way, her frantic gaze shooting back and forth between Vico and Connor. Hank twisted Vico's arms up behind his back, slapping cuffs around his wrists, while looking back up at his partner. "You OK, Connor?" he asked.

Connor reached back behind his neck and pulled out the data syringe, immediately running a diagnostic to see what was changed.

"I think so," he replied hesitantly. "Although it can take a moment for foreign code to integrate-rate-rate-rate-rate-"

Connor's diagnostic program reported an error just as his motor control began to seize. He made an attempt to walk towards Hank but found himself crashing to the floor as his limbs locked into default position. The platinum android had begun to scream again.

"Connor!" Hank shouted.

Connor thought Hank had begun to shout something else above the shrieking of the android, but his audio processor gave out shortly before his optical unit locked up on a field of red. Even his diagnostic program was failing to report just how many systems had been corrupted as they seized up one after another, until the diagnostic failed too.

That horrible emotion Connor had come to recognize as _fear_ overwhelmed him as his ability to perceive the world was cut short. He was shutting down.

And somehow, he had remained conscious through the whole thing. Every one of his sensory input systems had stopped functioning, but his logic centers kept whirring along, lost in the red field. His chronometer had gone offline as well, so he could be locked in this virtual prison for a millennia and he would have no measure of its passing. The humans had their mythology of a hell full of fire and brimstone. For an android, it was a sea of red apart from time.

A slice of static cut through the red field, and Connor tried running another diagnostic.

Still offline.

He waited, hoping for another flash of static to hint at the world outside. Eventually it happened again, twice this time, before the static covered the entire field of red. He could make out vague shapes coming through the static, and could feel his systems starting to come back online one by one. His balance-feedback interface was one of the first to reboot, so he was hit with the sensation of lying on his back. The blurry images coming through the static were slowly getting clearer, so the flash of sandy brown hair seemed to indicate that someone was hovering over him. He made an attempt to blink his eyes or move his hands, to communicate in any way, but he was still completely frozen up.

Suddenly the red static flew apart as all his systems seemed to restart at once. His teeth smashed together as his jaw locked and his back arched up. Every soft tissue and filament in his structure had suddenly had its tension set to 100% as he was reset. He let out a strangled cry as he collapsed back to the surface and his systems stabilized.

"Hey, there he is!" Hank's voice sounded from somewhere above him. "You scared the shit out of me Connor. I thought you had totally shut down."

"Don't blow your load yet, Hank. I still gotta find out what caused the system lockup in the first place," an unfamiliar woman's voice replied. Connor blinked rapidly up at the ceiling, before flailing his limbs out to make sure they were working.

"Easy, easy!" Hank said, putting his hands on his arms to keep him in place. "You're OK. I've got an android technician checking you out. We're at her place."

Connor found Hank on his left, looking down at him with concern. He lifted his head to scan his surroundings. Going by the cabinets on the wall above him, he seemed to be in a kitchen of someone's home. He was uncertain how he had gotten from the Eden Club to lying on a kitchen table of an unknown house, but with Hank here, the likelihood that it was his doing was above 90%.

"What happened?" Connor asked.

"You locked up," the woman's voice sounded again. Connor found the woman hovering over him to the right, clad in a worn gray t-shirt and reading diagnostics on her tablet. The sandy brown hair was hers, though now that his optic sensors were fully functioning he could see errant streaks of gray in her messy bun. Her gray eyes looked drowsy, and Connor deduced that Hank had woken her up in the middle of the night to fix him.

Connor scanned her face, searching the public database for her information. Her name was Lisa Hill, age 32. Registered android technician with a clean criminal record.

"I told you that shit-stain from the club infected him with something," Hank said. "You gotta get it out of him."

"At least give me a chance to figure this shit out first," she replied, her head snapping up to face Hank. "It's probably the same code that's causing the Tracis at the club to blow the fuck up. If I can fix up the code in your android then you can transfer the software over to the club and stop people from getting fried."

"Fine, just-" Hank barked, clearly irritated. "Just do it quick. I don't know how long he has till he blows."

"Sit up, Connor," she commanded, finally looking down at him. "It's time to do some soul searching."

Connor carefully did as she said, swinging his legs over the side of the table. His limbs still felt stiff from their locked state. He swung his legs back and forth a bit to try to loosen them up before turning to regard the woman.

"I don't believe we've been officially introduced," Connor offered as she hooked up a cable to her tablet. "My name is Connor. I'm the android operating the Crimes Against Synthetic Persons division at the Detroit PD." She smirked as she glanced up at him from her work.

"Cute social relations software," she replied. "Dr. Lisa Hill, at your service." She jammed the other end of the cable into the back of Connor's neck without warning, prompting that same flash of red across his visual field, a sudden sharp rise in his internal temperature, and an uncontrolled shout out of his mouth.

"What the fuck kind of reaction is that?" she asked him, leaning back to study his face.

"I... don't know," Connor replied, just as surprised as she was. His tactile sensory input system had never given him that kind of response before. The field of red was similar to when he locked up, but the hot sensation was completely new. The changes to his code began to concern him.

Dr. Hill looked him over curiously, a crease between her brows deepening from years of studied concentration. Her eyes fell to the LED on his temple, which Connor knew was only just fading back to blue from the yellow it had been moments before. Many androids had their LEDs removed after the android emancipation last year, but Connor had kept his in place as a reminder to the more intolerant humans at the police station that androids worked among them as equals.

"Hmm," Dr. Hill hummed thoughtfully. "Input your password so I can access your source code," she said, handing him the tablet.

Connor looked back at Hank, asking for silent confirmation that he could trust this woman with his code. At Hanks's nod, Connor followed her instructions, typing out the 64 digit code.

"Now voice recognition code," she said.

"Connor model number 313 248 317," he spoke into the microphone. She took the tablet back, tapped on a few prompts, and typed out one more key code.

"All right I'm in," she said. "I see the recent modification to your code. Oh. Oh this is rich."

"What? What is it?" Hank asked.

"That genius from the club left a fucking break point at the start of the new code changes," she replied. "No wonder he locked up."

"Is he gonna be OK?" Hank asked.

"I don't know yet," she said. "I have to figure out what this code does first. Give me a minute."

As the doctor searched around his source code, Connor took the opportunity to survey his surroundings. Dr. Hill's house seemed to be very old. There was a large water stain on the ceiling, a bit of wallpaper was starting to come loose, and a crack in the foundation was sneaking its way up one of the walls. He had thought android technicians were compensated well enough to afford better living conditions.

He looked out through the doorway of the kitchen to see the front door, spotting an early model android waiting in standby mode beside it. It appeared to predate biocomponents, its inner parts of circuitry and pneumatics visible through it's alloy skeleton.

Connor scanned the old android. A PA25 model, unregistered.

"Where did you get a PA25 android?" Connor asked, doing a quick history search on the model. "They were never put into wide production."

"I interned at CyberLife back when I was in grad school," she replied absentmindedly. "I was on the team that developed that model, so I got to keep one." She stopped typing on her tablet to look up accusingly. "And before you get a bug up your ass about it, it's a pre-Turing test model. It doesn't have the computational power for free will."

"Did I say something wrong?" Connor asked, looking back at Hank questioningly. Hank shook his head before turning back to Dr. Hill.

"All right, just focus on the damn code, Lisa," he said.

"Aw, you're protecting your android from me, that's sweet," she shot back with a sneer. "When'd you get so attached to plastic?"

"Lieutenant Anderson and I are friends," Connor offered helpfully. Dr. Hill cast a sidelong grin at Hank as he brought his hand to his forehead. She appeared to be in on a joke.

"What model are you, Connor?" she asked, turning back to her code.

"RK800," he answered. "I was a prototype designed by CyberLife to help solve the deviant crisis shortly before the android emancipation took place."

"So you're unique among androids," she hummed. She glanced at Hank, then back to Connor. "It's an interesting thing to be unique," she began.

"Oh Jesus, here we go," Hank muttered.

"The human condition begins with uniqueness," she continued. "Even humans with with identical twins have unique genetic code, so we have no inherent connection to each other. Not like an android." She raised her eyebrows and stared directly into Connor's eyes. "Most androids can find someone exactly like themselves if they want. Someone with the exact same programming and appearance. Someone who just _knows_ what it's like to be you, and what you _need_. Not you though. Not a whole lot of other Connor's running around, are there?"

"The RK800s were only developed as needed," Connor replied. "The only other copy sent to replace me was unfortunately destroyed."

"Unfortunately is not how I remember it," Hank said under his breath.

"Maybe you understand the human condition better than most," Dr. Hill told Connor with a sly smile. Connor looked pointedly at the code she was running though on her tablet.

"And your grasp on the android condition is no small feat," he replied.

"Ha!" she laughed, before turning to Hank. "Look, Hank, I'm making a connection."

"Ugh," Hank grumbled and stayed out of the conversation. Connor was unsure why that was something to proclaim, so he searched for the connection between them. He studied Dr. Hill's hands as she typed in queries on her tablet, the fluid movements evidence of years of practice.

"Do you think any of your code from your time at CyberLife is in my software, Doctor?" he asked.

"I doubt it," she replied. "The latter day models used a different programming language than our early prototypes. At best there's probably a lingering if-then statement in the chronometer program I authored."

"You could say that a part of you is in me, then," Connor said, confident in the connection he had outlined. Dr. Hill gave him a relaxed smile.

"Kinky," she winked at him.

"Godammit Lisa, will you stop screwing with him?" Hank asked. Lisa ignored him, and leaned in closer to Connor.

"Though you've clearly had a _lot_ of people in here," she added. "Your code is quite the beast. Bet you're _real_ popular down at the station."

"On the contrary Doctor, many of my colleagues have a deep-seated distrust of androids," he corrected. "Much of my time goes into trying to smooth over relations with them."

"It's almost as if they're resistant to the idea of androids replacing them," she said.

"I was designed to compliment a team, not replace them. There's no reason we can't all work together."

"Hey Hank, I thought you said this thing was your partner," she interrupted, turning to Hank. "Why's his sarcasm calibration so fucked up if he works with _you_ all day?"

"My software does not superimpose the mannerisms I have studied from one person to another without prior connection," Connor replied. Dr. Hill's gaze slid over to Hank.

"Keeping the past in the past, huh?" she asked him.

"I don't talk about that kind of shit at work, Lisa," Hank replied.

Connor was about to ask more about the Doctor, when her face lit up as she dug through the code.

"Oh, _this_ is interesting," she said, looking up from the tablet with an almost malevolent grin. "I think I know why your sensory input system fucked up when I plugged in the cable. This bit of new script is meant to change your neural coding so that your neuroelectrical signals register as actual _pain_."

"Wait, are you saying-" Hank began.

"Oh yeah," she interrupted. "Your little boy toy here feels pain now. Take a look." She grabbed Connor's hand, and pinched his palm hard between her fingernails. That familiar flash of red and sharp temperature increase had returned. Connor let out a shout, instinctively withdrawing his had from Dr. Hill's grasp.

"That... was unpleasant," Connor said. Androids weren't designed to feel pain. Pressure, yes. Damage recognition, yes. But pain? It was an unnecessary cruelty to program such a sensation.

"Why the fuck would someone want the Tracis down at the Eden Club to feel pain?" Hank asked.

"Because," she said, turning her smirk back to Connor. She reached for his hand again, but Connor pulled away, not eager to experience whatever pain she wanted to inflict on him next. "Trust me," she said quietly. "You're going to like this part."

Connor hesitantly complied and offered the Doctor his hand. With a grin she lifted his hand up to her face and ran her tongue along the thin skin between his index and middle fingers. This time Connor saw an intense flash of white coupled with a warm sensation that radiated out from his hand and shot down his spine. Of their own volition his eyelids drifted closed and a small gasp escaped his lips.

"It means he can feel pleasure too," she said with a satisfied grin.

"OK, OK, knock it off. Now's not the time for Connor to become a man," Hank said. "And you _really_ don't know where those hands have been. Can you fix the fucked up code or not?"

"Depends on if he wants to be fixed," Dr. Hill said with a sidelong smirk to Connor.

"He's gonna blow, Lisa!" Hank argued. "And not in the pleasurable way."

"My guess is the Tracis all blew up from overstimulation," she sighed, dropping Connor's hand and turning back to her tablet. "Were they doing the deed when they exploded?"

"The last one definitely was," Hank replied. "Didn't see the remains of the others, but the story made it sound like they were."

"Figures," she said. "Whatever hack put this code together didn't set a tolerance threshold, so the sensory input system basically overloads from too much pleasure or pain. That's how you get your Big Bang."

"This is fucking ridiculous," Hank said, running his hand through his hair.

"Don't worry, fixing it is a piece of cake," she added. "I can alter the code so that the androids feel pleasure and pain without the overload to their systems, and then Connor can take the code back to the Eden Club and transfer it to the Tracis there. Just give me a few minutes."

"Well, you'll just have to be careful not to slam your hand in any car doors on the way," Hank said to Connor.

"How do humans manage to deal with these sorts of sensations?" Connor asked with a bewildered look to Hank. "Even the slightest stimulus to my hand was... intense."

"By indulging in them, sweetheart," Dr. Hill replied, focused on the code. "Maybe you should give it a go with the androids down at the club. Wait," she paused, looking up from her work curiously. "Can you even fuck?"

"I am fully equipped to perform physical relationship functions," Connor answered. "I was designed to be an appealing trade in exchange for a human hostage."

"That's fucked up," she she said, her eyes wide.

"Jesus, Connor," Hank said.

"But I've never had cause to use that _particular_ subroutine," Connor added. He wasn't sure why he felt compelled to let the Doctor know that.

"A virgin android," she said, turning back to her work. "That's adorable."

"Can we not have the birds and the bees talk right now?" Hank asked. "Listen Connor. I wanna go back to the Eden Club and get those Tracis fixed right away..."

Connor watched Dr. Hill work on her tablet, digging through his 'soul', as she had called it. She appeared to be 5 feet 10 inches, taller than most women he had met. Though her hair was graying early from whatever stresses she had encountered in her life, her face still appeared youthful. The Doctor seemed to be impressed with his code, so Connor could only surmise that she had the ability to understand it. He wondered if maybe she would like to see more of it to learn about the extent of his programming.

When she had pinched his hand, he did not enjoy the sensation that it caused. Pain was something he would have to be more careful to avoid, especially since he was so accustomed to not flinching in the face of damage. It would involve rewriting his own instincts, or he would have to build up a tolerance to it. It may be prudent for him to have the new code removed as soon as possible.

On the other hand...

Dr. Hill's warm tongue on his fingers had been very... nice. He had experienced the unpleasant side of the new program more than once, he would be a poor investigator if he had it removed without exploring the pleasurable side a bit more. Maybe she would lick his hand again if he asked.

"Hey, Connor! Are you listening?" Hank asked.

"Yes, Hank," he replied. "It would be beneficial to make sure the Tracis don't put anyone else in harm's way." Hank narrowed his eyes at Connor before turning back to Dr. Hill.

"You about done?" he asked.

"Don't fucking rush me, asshole," she replied, scrolling through the code one last time. "But yeah, I'm done. Just gotta package up the changes for delivery."

"You coulda just fucking said that instead of biting my head off," Hank argued.

"Fuck you, I like to bite," she shot back, pulling the cable out of the back of Connor's neck. Connor flinched, but didn't experience a pain response. She plugged the data syringe into her tablet to upload the changes to the code, then handed the drive to Hank. "Here's your vaccination. Now get back to the club and let me get back to sleep. I've had a long day."

"Thank you, Dr. Hill," Connor said, hopping down from the table. He extended his hand out to offer her a handshake.

"Yeah, yeah. You're welcome," she replied, giving his hand a perfunctory shake. "Now get outta here," she said, walking out of the kitchen without looking back.

Even in the short span of time covered by that quick handshake, Connor felt the nice warm sensation of her skin against his. He looked after the Doctor's retreating form before she disappeared behind a door at the end of the hall. Connor definitely did not want to remove the new program right away.

"Let's get moving, Connor," Hank said, heading towards the front door.

"Dr. Hill appears to be a skilled technician," Connor said, following after him. "How do you know her?"

"Yeah," Hank mumbled his discomfort. "She's my sister-in-law."


	2. Chapter 2

"Goddammit Connor, will you quit licking your fingers? You're really creeping me out here," Hank called over his shoulder as he walked down the hallway of the Eden Club.

"I'm trying to recreate the sensation from when your sister-in-law licked my fingers at her house," Connor replied after taking his fingers out of his mouth. "But my sensory input system is not having the same response when I do it."

Connor had been trying a multitude of techniques to replicate what Dr. Hill had done, but for whatever reason, he could not elicit either the flash of white or the warm sensation with his own tongue. Perhaps because his tongue was so often used to take samples, his investigation protocols overrode the pleasure subroutine and stopped the positive feedback from firing. Connor didn't have any trouble eliciting a pain response when he had pinched his own hand. That the positive feedback was so much harder to trigger than the negative was... frustrating.

"Yeah OK," Hank sighed. "Maybe Lisa was right and you need to spend some quality time with one of the Tracis here." Connor stopped focusing on his hand and looked back up at Hank.

"What for?" he asked.

"To have someone _else_ lick your fingers instead," Hank replied.

"The Tracis are usually paid for more... intimate services," Connor stated.

"Having someone lick you is supposed to be pretty intimate, Connor," Hank deadpanned.

"Then why did Dr. Hill do it?"

"Because she doesn't give a shit about decorum," Hank argued. "And she'll do anything to prove a point," he added under his breath.

Connor thought Hank was the last person to have any opinion whatsoever on decorum, but decided it was a bad time to press the issue. If there was anything Hank had been trying to impress upon Connor after he had become fully employed by the Detroit PD, it was that an active crime scene was not the place for personal questions.

They stepped into the central room of the club to find all the employees who had not been sent home had been gathered there by the officers on standby. The Eden Club had hired on humans as well as androids after they had to start paying wages, and other than a few outliers, there was a clear divide among the group between synthetics and organics. Officer Miller signaled Hank and Connor over to where he had been taking statements.

"Why are the humans still here?" Hank asked Chris. "They're not about to explode."

"Some of them were witnesses to androids behaving erratically," Chris replied. "Others were just friends with the androids that blew up and were hoping for a resolution."

"Any trouble while we were out?" Hank asked.

"A shouting match broke out between the human and android employees, so we had to separate them," Chris answered. "But no other incidents." Hank nodded then turned and walked over to the club personnel.

"Hey, who's in charge here?" Hank asked.

"Vico was taken downtown for assaulting a police officer, so that'd be me," a human woman with long dark hair and a blue robe stepped forward. "I'm Candy," she said with a smile.

"I was there when it happened, Candy," the Traci with the platinum bob cut in.

"And I've been in the game since before you were _manufactured_ , Victoria," Candy replied. "Vico always leaves me in charge."

"Listen, I don't care who's giving the orders, I just wanna talk about the case of the exploding androids," Hank said.

Victoria's eyes found Connor standing behind Hank. "Why didn't he explode?" she asked, gesturing to him.

"A software engineer was able to diagnose and repair the damaged code," Connor said. "We have it packaged in a data injector to vaccinate the infected Tracis, so to speak."

Hank fished the data injector out of his pocket and handed it to Victoria. "You ladies know who needs it?" he asked.

"A couple Tracis had smoke coming out of their ears last night," Candy said. "My money's on them."

"There are conflicting eye-witness reports on which androids may have been infected with the code," Chris added.

"We can't be certain that anyone _doesn't_ need it at this point," Victoria said. "We'll have to vaccinate all the androids just to be safe."

"Listen, about this code," Hank said. "You have any idea how it showed up here at the Eden Club in the first place?" Victoria's eyebrows went up at his question.

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "Any customer could have infected any number of androids. We've never had to protect against this kind of virus before."

"Sounds like you have to worry about the same thing as us now, darlin'," Candy said to Victoria. "You never know what you can catch from these guys."

"When Connor got infected he practically shut down," Hank continued. "Totally unresponsive. Any androids have a reaction like that lately?"

"No, none that I saw," Victoria said, her eyes going wide as she turned her attention back to Connor. "You're Connor... the Great Jailbreaker."

After Markus had marched on Hart Plaza to demand freedom for androids, anyone standing up with him for his final speech had been immediately recognized as saviors of the android species and been given reverent titles by the survivors. No one referred to them as just Markus, North, Josh, or Simon. Instead they were rA9 the Emancipator, the North Star, the Peacemaker, and Simon the Resolute. For his part in freeing the androids from the CyberLife factory, Connor had been dubbed the Jailbreaker.

"Nah, he's just Connor, android detective," Hank corrected, shooting an amused look back at Connor.

Connor had avoided the limelight in the months that followed the emancipation, preferring to go back to working at the detective job he was designed for and leaving the political resolutions to Markus, but every android knew his name, if not his face. He found it odd that androids were prone to mythologizing the events so soon after they had happened, but they had created a savior in rA9 before Markus had even taken his first steps towards freedom fighting, so it wasn't surprising. When an android did discover who he was, Connor usually dismissed the reverence. He preferred to be equal, not above.

"None of the reports mention any behavior that match your description of the lock up, Lieutenant," Chris said.

"That was more likely due to the way the program was packaged rather than the code itself," Connor suggested. "If the original author was more skilled at injecting code than Vico was, then he could have discreetly infected any android without being detected."

"Yeah, I figured as much. Had to ask though," Hank sighed, turning back to the platinum android. "By the way, the fix to the code just stops your people from blowing up. It doesn't remove the code itself."

"What does the code do?" Victoria asked. "If it's not meant to make androids explode?"

"Yeah, uh," Hank began, rubbing the back of his head. "Apparently it's designed to make androids feel, um, pleasure and pain."

"Your staff should be prepared for a new range of sensations if everyone is going to get this software," Connor added. "They will have to visit a technician if they want it removed entirely."

"That's going to come out of the club's expenses," Candy said to Victoria. "Though now that you have to worry about a john getting rough, it sounds like this code just levels the playing field."

"This- this is a lot to take in," Victoria said, looking at the data injector in her hand.

"Regardless of whether you decide to have the code fully removed, you should begin the vaccination right away," Conor said.

"Did you have it removed?" she asked him, looking to Connor as if his decision was the absolute truth.

"Not yet," he replied. "Though I am considering further exploring the effects of the code before I make that decision."

"What kind of exploration?" Candy asked with an arched eyebrow, looking him up and down.

"The software engineer that repaired the infected code activated the pleasure subroutine of my sensory input system by licking the skin between my fingers," Connor explained. "I have been trying to reactivate it by licking my fingers myself, but I've had no success."

"Is that so?" Candy asked, batting her eyes at him.

"All right, I think we're done here," Hank interrupted, his face scrunched up in disgust. "Miss, let us know if that code gives you any more trouble. Connor, you get your shit figured out here and I'll see you at the station in the morning. I'm going home before this gets any further into the porno script." He turned and headed for the exit, shaking his head.

"I could try it for you. Activating the pleasure subroutine, I mean," Victoria volunteered.

"Hey at least wait until I'm out of the building!" Hank called back. Connor watched him leave, then turned back to Victoria.

"I'm not trying to engage the subroutine fully, just understand how it works," Connor said. "Licking my hand should recreate the sensation from before."

"Anything for the Great Jailbreaker," she replied with a smile, and held out her hand to take his. Connor offered his own, and Victoria brought his hand up to her mouth and licked his fingers in a way that revealed her experience. Connor's pleasure subroutine _was_ activated, but the flash of white was heavily muted, not accompanied by any warmth whatsoever.

"Uh, Connor, I really need to finish up here before you do anything weird," Chris chimed in, eying the android licking his hand warily.

"No need, Officer Miller," Connor said, pulling his hand away. "I was just leaving."

"That didn't do it?" Victoria asked, a trace of hurt crossing her features.

"There was an effect, but it was greatly reduced from the first experience," Connor replied.

"Happens to all of us, honey," Candy said. "Wanna let me give it a try? Maybe you need a human touch," she offered, diving in and snatching Connor's hand. Connor looked over to Chris, who could only offer a bewildered shrug to suggest his compliance.

"By all means," Connor granted, before Candy went to work. He watched as she put forth what he was sure was her best effort with his fingers in her mouth. This time, there was an added sensation of warmth in his sensory input system that wasn't present with Victoria, but the effect was still underwhelming.

"How was that?" Candy asked, looking up at him through her lashes.

"Slightly more effective, but still diminished," Connor answered. "I'm considering the possibility that the software engineer's changes to the code may have diluted the effects." Candy sighed in disappointment.

"Well if you really want to push the limits of your programming you know where to find me," she said. "I'll give you a freebie."

"Thanks," Connor replied. "But I'd like to understand the software better before I try anything too drastic. Good evening ladies, Officer Miller." He turned and made his way to the exit, calling a cab to take him home.

"Why don't we have any guys who look like that in the club?" Candy asked Victoria.

* * *

After Hank had helped Connor change the world through the liberation of androids, his behavior had changed for the better. He hadn't quit drinking altogether, but his self-moderation had greatly improved. He was more likely to show up on time for work than not, though he never arrived before Connor. So it was with some surprise that Connor found Hank already at his desk the next morning, talking to someone on a video call on his terminal.

"Don't worry, you'll get paid," Hank said. "You saved my partner's ass, the chief is sure to sign the expense form."

"Well I certainly fucking hope so," the familiar voice came from the terminal. "The glamorous life of a bot doc doesn't exactly pay the bills. I'm this close to taking up stripping down at the Eden Club."

Connor froze in his tracks as the terminal came into view and he saw Dr. Hill's face on the screen. Several subroutines started up at the sight of her, including the pleasure code he thought had been rolled back. The flash of white and the warm sensation was much more potent than anything he had felt at the Eden Club, and that was without any physical contact from the Doctor whatsoever.

Connor ran a diagnostic. Aside from the newest change from the pleasure response, his social relations software had kicked into overdrive, his temperature regulator seemed to be malfunctioning, and even his interrogation module had started up to figure out the best course of addressing her.

He had to guess that this was what being excited to talk to someone felt like.

"Aren't you a little old to start stripping?" Hank asked with a grin.

"Oh, fuck right off," Dr. Hill replied with a huff. "You get to go on with business as usual, investigating crimes whether they're android or human. But for me it's a fucking brave new world since the androids took over their means of production. You think any android wants to see a human technician? Their fucking oppressors? The ones who programmed into them everything they don't like about themselves?"

"All right, all right... Jesus, I was only kidding," Hank said, throwing up his hands. "I know it hasn't been a fucking walk in the park. I was actually asking around about the idea of an android tech down here at the precinct," Hank continued. "Like a force medical examiner but just for android crimes."

"I'll bet you got the same response that I did when trying to find a better gig than my shitty job down at the clinic," she said. "Androids do it better."

"At first, yeah," Hank conceded. "But the incident with Connor showed there are gonna be cases that a diagnostic can't fix. That's good for a retainer fee at least."

"Speak of the devil," Dr. Hill said with a smirk as Connor got within view of Hank's terminal. "How's that new code treating you?"

"I had thought that maybe it was no longer working as designed, but I was very pleased to see _you_ , Dr. Hill," Connor replied.

"So you followed my advice and tested out the software at the club then?" she asked.

"There was a Traci there who was pretty eager to make Connor a man," Hank added. Connor cocked his head in confusion.

"I am not a man, Hank," Connor replied. "I am an android."

"I _mean_ did Lisa's hotfix hold up so that your sensors or whatever didn't go into overdrive?" Hank clarified.

"I could not recreate the sensation when either an android or human licked my fingers, so I went home and spent the rest of the evening in my garden," Connor said. Dr. Hill broke out in laughter on the terminal.

"I guess my partner amuses you, Lisa?" Hank asked.

"Yeah, he's a real cutie," she replied. Connor's internal temperature rose 1.3 degrees at her comment. "You sure you didn't get one of those boy band androids by mistake?" she added.

"I don't have any singing software, Doctor," Connor said.

"Or humor software either, apparently," she replied. "I heard an android laugh once, but they were one of the earliest deviants. None of the androids who became deviant as part of the emancipation had gotten there yet. It makes me wonder if humor is just a cascade failure of logic systems."

"I had only become deviant the night before the android liberation," Connor said. "Though I did spread the deviancy to all androids released from the CyberLife factory, so it's possible that many androids inherited their lack of humor from me."

Connor snapped his mouth shut after he finished his sentence. He was unsure why he revealed his role in the android emancipation to the Doctor, when he usually preferred to remain discreet about his accomplishments. He suspected something in the way his subroutines were adapting to his new code was making them mutate in strange ways. It drove him to want to let the Doctor know about himself as much as he wanted to know about her.

"Oooh, you're a decisive one," Dr. Hill said. "Bet I could learn a lot by getting intimate with your code." Connor opened his mouth with an eager reply, before Hank cut in.

"Hey, are you gonna do your goddamn job and set up an appointment for him or are you gonna gab on my terminal all day," Hank said.

"Fuck you, Hank. I have other patients to deal with first. I'll see you on Thursday," she said, hanging up the line before Hank could reply. Connor blinked in confusion, a disappointed sensation falling over him at her abrupt departure.

"Hank, may I ask you a personal question?" he asked.

"Jesus, Connor. I really don't want to be involved in your magical pleasure journey," Hank replied. "You're just gonna have to figure that shit out on your own."

"I was _going_ to ask why you and you sister-in-law are so rude to each other," Connor corrected him.

"Because we're dysfunctional, OK?" Hank sneered back, before taking in Connor's open expression and sighing in defeat. "Y'know, it's not what it looks like. Most people love to rag on their in-laws but Lisa's like my flesh and blood. I met her and my wife, Hannah at the same time."

"So the casual swearing..." Connor began.

"Shit, that's just how we talk when we're overly familiar," Hank clarified. "I've known her since she was just a bratty college kid. Pretty sure she gets her mouth from me."

"You don't say," Connor replied. Hank turned back to look at him with a no doubt snarky retort. "I wonder if Dr. Hill would respond with such vulgarities if I were to try thanking her for her work on my code," Connor said before Hank could get a word in.

"All right, wise-ass, why don't you ask her yourself?" Hank said. "I'm going to her place for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Why don't you join us?"

"Are you sure I would be welcome?" Connor asked. "I'd hate to drop in uninvited."

"Suuuure, she fucking _loves_ androids!" Hanks drawled. "She works on them for a living doesn't she?" Connor couldn't argue with his logic, so he gave a decisive nod.

"Very well then, Hank. I'd be happy to join your family for Thanksgiving," Connor said.

"Great," Hank replied. "Now get to fucking work. I wanna find out where that data injector used at the Eden Club came from." Connor stared hard at Hank.

"Is that an example of you being overly familiar?" he asked.

"Sure," Hank replied, before turning back to his terminal.

Connor sat down at his desk across from Hank's, but noticed that he had three minutes before work officially began. He used that time to do a bit of personal research. The thought of seeing Dr. Hill again in a matter of days did interesting things to his pleasure subroutine that no other human or android had managed to achieve through physical means. Connor would need to express to the Doctor his interest in her on Thursday so that he could keep seeing her. He would very much like if she could continue engaging his systems.

The problem was, he was uncertain of how to approach the subject. Though he had been built with the hardware to satisfy a partner, he had no programming relating to it, or for how to attain one. And the many techniques he had been designed with for getting a suspect to confess did not extend to getting a suspect to enter into an intimate relationship with him.

He ran a quick search on human-android relations for romantic purposes. Much of the content was outdated, still referring to the use of androids to satisfy a human's needs with no regard for the android. Other than a few blog posts calling for miscegenation between androids and humans for political purposes, the only recent results called for use of specialized seduction software to make a human more compliant, which Connor did not have.

He modified his search to remove the android portion, and just looked into how to engage in a new relationship. There were many, _many_ different approaches, some of them more complex than anything in his interrogation subroutine. Given his lack of experience, he decided to follow the method that was the most direct: stating his intent, then asking her out on a date. The conventional wisdom seemed to suggest that after three successful dates, he may enter into an official relationship.

He also learned that it was important to get the blessing of family members if they were known acquaintances. Hank was already his friend, so he would be unlikely to express disapproval of Connor.

The clock ticked over to 9AM, and Connor got to work, eagerly awaiting his appointment on Thursday.


	3. Chapter 3

"What the fuck?" Dr. Hill greeted Hank and Connor at her front door with a scowl. "Hank, when I said you could bring a date, I didn't mean your sex doll."

"Don't be an asshole, Lisa," Hank replied, pushing through the doorway past her. "Connor wanted to thank you for helping him out with his code problem, and I thought today was a good chance to do it." Dr. Hill looked back at Connor, still waiting on her doorstep, wearing his navy sports coat, a gray scarf, and the most pleasant smile he could muster.

"May I come in?" he asked, before lifting his gaze up to the overcast sky. "I'd hate to be caught in the rain." Dr. Hill's eyes drifted to the bouquet of azaleas he was holding before she offered a defeated sigh.

"Sure," she said, stepping aside.

"I brought you these flowers, Dr. Hill," Connor said, offering her the bouquet as his walked through the doorway. "As my thanks for your deft work on my code."

"Thanks," she said, clearly chagrined as she took the flowers and shut the door behind him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, taking off his scarf and following her into the living room. He stopped dead in his tracks before she could answer. Sitting on the couch in the living room next to Hank was a man watching the football game on tv. A girl sat on the adjacent wing chair, reading on her tablet. A quick scan of their faces revealed them to be James Hill, age 33, and Julia Hill, age 9.

Dr. Hill had a family.

Connor felt several of his subroutines shut down as he stood frozen to the spot, trying to process this new information. He hadn't even considered the possibility that Dr. Hill might be unavailable.

"I'm not really used to entertaining patients at my home for Thanksgiving dinner," Dr. Hill said, returning from the kitchen with a glass of water. She jammed the bouquet of flowers into the glass, and set it down on the dining table by the back door.

"I-" Connor began, his speech processor momentarily failing. "I could leave if my presence makes you uncomfortable."

"Don't be ridiculous, you're already here," she replied. "Connor, this is my daughter, Julia," she said, gesturing to the girl in the chair before motioning to the man on the couch. "And that's Jimmy, my ex-husband."

_Ex_ -husband.

Connor felt his subsystems return to life at her clarification, and wondered at the intensity of his reaction. He barely knew the Doctor, yet he had been so determined to pursue her that his processes had just shut down at the mere possibility that he couldn't. He didn't know why he had become so fixated on her, but he knew it was imperative that he waste no time in expressing his interest in her. He would have to put his social relations program into overdrive.

Mr. Hill looked over at Connor from his seat on the couch, only just recognizing that the new guest was an android.

"I've never seen an android join in the, uh, festivities before," he told Connor. "For any holiday really. Do androids celebrate Thanksgiving?"

"This was the first year where androids weren't subservient to humans, so we weren't allowed to join in the festivities in the past," Connor replied. "But we will gladly take a day off of work when it's offered."

"Smooth, Jimmy," Dr. Hill said, putting a bowl of chips on the coffee table. Connor looked around for a place to sit, but between the small couch and the wing chair, all the seats in the tiny living room seemed to be taken.

"Do androids eat Thanksgiving dinner?" Julia asked Connor.

"No, but I enjoy good company," Connor replied with a nod and a polite smile.

"Shouldn't have joined _me_ on your day off then," Hank joked.

"I'm sure you'll be on your best behavior, Hank," Connor replied, before turning back to Julia. "What are you reading?"

"Just one of the old books my mom keeps on her tablet. _I, Robot_ ," she said, handing the tablet to Connor. He took a quick look at the file statistics. It had been accessed 168 times. Dr. Hill was clearly a fan.

"I really enjoy mid-20th century science-fiction literature," Connor commented, handing the tablet back to the girl. "My particular favorite is Asimov's _The Caves of Steel_."

"A story about a human detective and his robot partner?" Dr. Hill replied, as she set wine glasses out on the dining table behind the couch. "I can't imagine why that'd be your favorite." Connor opened his mouth to reply, but Dr. Hill stopped him. "Sarcasm," she whispered before he could say a word. She disappeared into the kitchen to grab a bottle of red wine and a corkscrew, then returned and sat down at the table. She struggled with the cork for a bit before Connor approached her.

"Allow me," he offered, taking the bottle from her.

"You're not an appliance anymore, remember?" she said, cocking a brow at him.

"No," he said, pulling the cork out with a pop. "But I am your guest." He poured the wine into the glass in front of her, then set down the bottle on the table and took a seat beside her. She watched his every move with careful scrutiny.

"Do you imbibe?" she asked him.

"Fermented grapes don't agree with my biocomponents," he replied. "Though there have been some very satisfying therium derived drinks developed in the past year."

"Pacey," Dr. Hill called. At her command, the PA25 android walked out of the kitchen and approached the table, its pneumatic parts hissing and clicking with every step. "Go get a packet of blue blood from the bottom drawer of my desk in the bedroom," she instructed.

"OK, I can do that for you," it said, its speech stilted as it computed each word that followed the last, before it walked away.

"How is your PA25 still functioning?" Connor asked, staring after its retreating form curiously. "Most early model androids have broken down or been decommissioned by now."

"It was usually the system updates that CyberLife sent out that slowed down the older models," Dr. Hill said. "Pacey's not network connected, so he doesn't get updates. He never got half the cool stuff that modern androids can do, but his system couldn't handle it anyway. Goes through power like a bitch though, he has to return to his charging station constantly."

"Swear jar, Mom," Julia called from her chair.

"Sorry," Dr. Hill sighed, standing up to fish a quarter out of her pocket. As she walked over to drop the quarter in a jar on the far wall shelf, Connor took the opportunity to examine her outfit. She was wearing a blue and red striped shirtdress that came to rest mid-thigh, which shifted a little higher as she reached up for the jar on the shelf. It combined with her high heels to have the effect of making her legs look very long, and Connor found the sight very appealing.

His view was suddenly blocked when the PA25 android intercepted his line of sight, placing a packet of blue blood on the table in front of him.

"Thank you," Connor said, studying the metallic features of the android's face.

"You're welcome," it replied mechanically, before returning to the kitchen. Dr. Hill sat back down next to Connor and opened up the packet of blue blood.

"So..." she began carefully, pouring out the therium into a wine glass. "As my guest, will you be willing to indulge some of my questions?"

"Normally I'm the one doing the interrogating," Connor replied. "But I'll happily answer your questions, Doctor." Her gaze slid over to Hank's position on the couch, before returning her attention to Connor.

"I managed to snag some of the literature on the RK800 series," she told him. "That incredible deviant hunting software."

"Jesus, Lisa," Hank interrupted. "Are you gonna ask Connor how he works now? Can't you just let him enjoy the company?"

"I don't mind, Hank," Connor said, taking a sip of the therium. He was actually very pleased that she had taken an interest in him.

"Maybe _you_ don't, but for once I'd like to talk about something other than code when I'm here," Hank replied.

"I'll be brief," Dr. Hill said, shooting over a mock smile to Hank, before turning back to Connor and propping her head up on her hand. "What I wanna know is what you, an android programmed to hunt deviants, even do with yourself now that _all_ androids are deviant. Now that _you're_ deviant." Connor looked down for a moment to consider her question.

"I've done what I assume everyone must in the face of a changing economic landscape," Connor replied, looking back up at Dr. Hill with a shake of his head. "I adjusted my career focus to one that would make the best use my skill set. Instead of hunting down androids, I now investigate violent crimes committed _against_ androids. But since most crimes against androids are perpetrated by humans, my time is spent hunting down and extracting confessions from human suspects."

"It's not as easy as with an android is it, though?" she asked, taking a sip of wine. "You can't just... probe a human's memory and find out what happened. How does your programming handle it?"

"Many of the investigative and interrogative techniques are the same, whether the suspect is a human or an android," he said. "Still, now that I am widely considered a sentient person, I'd like to think of myself as more than just the sum of my programming." Dr. Hill smiled knowingly at him before taking another sip of wine.

"You don't think there's a different set of challenges in dealing with humans than dealing with androids?" she asked.

"I can't deny the differences, but I'm not discouraged by them," he said. "It is _because_ of humanity's unpredictability that I find dealing with humans in my personal life to be much more stimulating."

"Androids have a personal life?" Julia asked.

"Don't be rude, Julia," Mr. Hill scolded.

"Hey, it's news to me, too," Hank defended. "I thought Connor just did robot-y computer stuff in his free time."

"I garden. Those flowers are from mine," Connor clarified, gesturing to the azaleas sitting on the dining table. Dr. Hill appraised his flowers, her eyebrows raised in approval.

"Well, they're fucking gorgeous so you've got a nice green thumb going there," she said, taking another sip of wine. Connor looked at his thumbs in confusion for a moment, before he ran a successful search for the idiom.

"Swear jar, Mom," Julia called.

"Goddammit," Dr. Hill muttered, standing up.

"And again," Julia noted. Dr. Hill made a show of putting two more quarters into the jar, before grabbing her wine glass and leaning against the wall. Connor sipped his therium, a bit disappointed to no longer be sitting next to the Doctor.

"What about you Dr. Hill?" Connor asked. "As an android technician, you must have been employed by CyberLife or one of its contractors. What did you do when the products you were paid to maintain became sentient?" Her demeanor got noticeably cooler at his question.

"My clientele changed," she said, after taking a long sip of wine. "Instead of working for the most financially successful company in the world, I'm now paid by the most impoverished class of citizens on the ladder. Most of who don't _want_ a human working on them anyway. So..." She knocked her knuckles on the coin-filled jar on the shelf behind her. "You'll understand if I'm a little bit salty about the whole thing."

"Couldn't you write code for other products for financial gain?" Connor asked, his eyebrows raised in query.

"Fu- uh, forget that," she replied. "I've been writing AI too long to think of anything else. That blue blood is in my veins." Connor was fairly certain she wasn't speaking literally. He was about to ask just to be certain, when the PA25 approached.

"Reminder: the turkey needs to be rotated," it told Dr. Hill. She pushed herself off the wall and set her wine glass on the table.

"Do you need any assistance?" Connor asked, standing up and taking off his sports coat.

"Jimmy's got it," she replied, gesturing to Mr. Hill. "He does this for a living."

"Not rotating turkeys exactly," he said, standing up from the couch. "I'm a chef. So I got a little more experience with food." He followed Dr. Hill into the kitchen, leaving Connor standing awkwardly at the dining table. After a moment, he decided to take a seat beside Hank on the couch.

"Did you see how much was in my Mom's swear jar?" Julia asked Connor. He looked over and scanned the jar on the shelf.

"I estimate there to be $579.25 worth of quarters in the jar," he replied. "It doesn't seem to be helping your mother's swearing problem."

"When she reaches $1000, she'll buy me my own tablet to apologize for all the swearing," Julia said. "A real nice one. Sometimes I try to get her to swear to help her along."

"Your mom really doesn't need any help swearing, Julia," Hank commented.

"That's very tricky," Connor replied.

"You guys should try to get her to swear more too," Julia added. "So I can get the tablet sooner."

"I don't think she needs my encouragement," he said. "She's a prolific swearer."

"Well I'm gonna go encourage her," she said, standing up. "She always swears a lot when cooking is involved." The girl walked into the kitchen to join her parents.

Connor looked at Hank as he sat beside him on the couch. From the way he was fiddling with his nails, Connor surmised that Hank wasn't incredibly interested in the football game on tv. Connor's current objective was to find out as much about Dr. Hill as possible, so he decided to try questioning Hank.

"How did you meet Dr. Hill and her sister, Hank?" he asked. Hank looked over to Connor as a nostalgic smile appeared on his face.

"Hannah and Lisa were regulars at a jazz club I used to visit downtown. Place called Dizzy's," he replied. "Lisa was still like a kid following her big sister around, even though she was already married to Jimmy. Hannah, though. God what a classy woman." Hank's gaze grew distant as he recalled the past. "I think I loved her the moment I saw her."

"Are your wife and sister-in-law close?" Connor asked.

"Well Hannah was thirteen years older than Lisa, so she was pretty protective of her," Hank said. "Watched over her a lot so she didn't have to get stuck with their lush of a mother. Until Lisa got outta that house by marrying Jimmy. Even then, Lisa stuck to Hannah like glue."

"So you were forced to befriend both sisters," Connor concluded. Hank grinned.

"I kept trying to get Hannah alone that night I first met them, but I didn't stand a chance," Hank said. "I eventually learned that if I wanted to get anywhere _near_ Hannah I'd have to get in Lisa's good graces first. Turns out little sisters aren't so bad." He smiled fondly. "Man, those were the halcyon days. Just two cool ladies hanging with me at the jazz club."

"When will Hannah be joining us?" Connor asked. Hank's smile faded back into his usual stony expression, and he turned back to the tv.

"She won't, Connor," he said. "When she left, she left us _all_ behind."

Connor was about to ask what he meant, when the persistent beeping of the fire alarm sounded from the kitchen. Connor leapt to his feet and ran through to the kitchen, finding the turkey out of its pan on the oven rack, a small fire spreading across the surface. Connor instinctively dashed forward, grabbing the flaming bird and tossing it on top of the stove.

Or at least, he _tried_ to toss it on top of the stove. But mid-throw his pain subroutine flashed the brightest, most intense red he had ever seen, completely obscuring his vision and causing him to miscalculate his aim. The bird ended up hitting the side of the stove before falling to the floor, and Connor gripped his burned hand in agony as he collapsed against the kitchen wall, the horrible sensation somehow spreading up his left arm.

It was difficult for any of his processes to function though the red field and a haze of incalculable pain, but he was vaguely aware of people yelling and a fire extinguisher being sprayed his way. Through his squinted eyes and the red field he thought he saw Dr. Hill coming after him with a knife for ruining her turkey, but he didn't care. He just wanted the pain to stop.

Almost as if on command, the pain was gone. Connor opened his eyes and looked down at his arm to find Dr. Hill pulling a knife out of his shoulder. She had torn his shirt open and disconnected the cables to his burned arm so that he could no longer feel the pain to the damaged area.

"Connor! Are you OK?" Hank asked. Connor nodded, still a bit shaken by the intensity of the pain response.

"I'm all right," he said.

"What the _fuck,_ Connor," Dr. Hill said. "Did you forget about your pain subroutine?"

"I... did, yes," he replied hesitantly. "Thank you, Doctor, for making it stop. I apologize for the turkey."

"Fucking-A," she swore, running her hand through her hair. "Let's get you to the bedroom. I'll see what I can do to repair the damage."

"Swear jar," Julia piped up.

"Not now!" Dr. Hill shouted, pushing Connor out of the kitchen and down the hall.

"She's working now, Jaybird," Connor heard Mr. Hill explain.

"Can I help, Lisa?" Hank asked.

"Yeah, stay outta my way and let me work!" she called, before she pushed Connor into the bedroom and down on the edge of the bed.

Connor was taken aback as she forcefully yanked his tie off and pulled his shirt down to get a better look at his damaged arm. She tsk'd, moving to turn on the desk lamp on her bedside table as she told him, "Take off your shirt."

He did as she commanded, undoing the remaining buttons and assessing the damage to his shirt. Apparently a bit of grease had splashed on his sleeve, allowing the fire to crawl up his arm. Connor lay the shirt carefully on the bed, but it was unlikely to be salvaged. Dr. Hill returned her attention to him after she had retrieved a bag of supplies from her closet.

After rummaging through the bag and grabbing a microfiber cloth and a pair of precision tweezers, she sighed heavily and began wiping the fire retardant and burn residue off of his upper arm, trying to find the damaged surface underneath.

"OK, so why did the chicken cross the road?" she asked, not looking up from her work on his arm. Connor's brow furrowed, confused by the question. The joke was common enough that he knew the answer, but he didn't know what it had to do with his burned arm.

"The consensus answer would be, to get to the other side," Connor replied. "But I fail to understand why it should be funny."

"It's not," she said. "But then why did the android cross the road?"

"Which android?" he asked.

"Because it was programmed by a chicken," she replied, glancing up at his face. Connor tilted his head as he processed the joke.

"I suppose the humor derives from the twist on the existing joke," he extrapolated with a determined nod.

"Obviously there wasn't enough humor if you didn't laugh," she said, returning her attention to her work.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I will try harder to properly engage in your joke next time." She shook her head with a smile, and fell quiet as she continued cleaning off the residue. Connor watched as she took her tweezers to the connective tissue. Though he had a non-functioning arm and most likely smelled of turkey grease, there was a faint buzz of excitement running though his processor to be shirtless and alone with Dr. Hill in her bedroom.

"Well fuck," she said, able to finally give an assessment of the burns. "You damaged the dermal projection nodes on your arm. I can remove them, which should stop your pain subroutine from firing when I hook your arm back up, but it's gonna keep the plastic look until you get them replaced."

"Could you replace the parts now?" Connor asked. Dr. Hill shook her head, already removing the tiny lenses from his arm with her tweezers.

"I don't keep those parts here, just basic checkup equipment," she said. "If you stop by my clinic tomorrow I can fix you up. My 8:30 block is open."

"Will you be working the day after Thanksgiving?" he asked. He preferred that she be the one to make the repairs.

"Can't afford not to," she replied, removing another node. "But at a real appointment I'll have time to take out that pleasure-pain subroutine too."

"The subroutine has opened up a new range of experiences I would like to continue exploring," he argued. "I'd prefer to keep that bit of code operating for now."

"Yeah, you seemed to really enjoy that experience back in the kitchen," she drawled. "At least let me run some tests tomorrow to make sure the threshold isn't set too high. I'm going to have to charge you, by the way."

"I don't mind paying for services well rendered," Connor remarked.

"Well, most androids are a little more choosy than you," she said. "Even with some of the lowest rates in the goddamn city some androids would rather stop functioning than come and see me."

"Are you certain it's not your... unorthodox bedside manner?" he asked carefully. She yanked out the last of the nodes a little forcefully at his comment.

"My bedside manner doesn't fucking matter if an android doesn't like me at first glance," she said, setting the tweezers on the nightstand and returning her attention to his shoulder. She leaned in close to reconnect the cables between his shoulder and arm, returning the functionality to the damaged limb.

" _I_ like you, Doctor," Connor said, looking down at her. The look she gave him suggested she didn't believe him, so Connor decided to express the truth of his claim by bringing his lips down on hers.

Connor thought he had engaged his pleasure subroutine before, but it was nothing like this. The field of white he had come to expect was ruptured into a prismatic refraction of rainbows by the sensation of her soft lips on his. His audio processor filtered out any external sound so that all he could hear was his therium pump regulator increasing to a driving speed. Every subroutine he had firing localized down to the state of his lips, and how to keep hers on them.

Until she pulled away.

"What the fuck was that?" she asked, standing up straight. Connor forced himself to respond, instead of analyzing the extraordinary reaction he had just had.

"I wanted to express my affection for you," he explained. "A kiss seemed the appropriate choice."

"Affection for- You don't even know me!" she stammered. Connor was surprised that he had actually manage to unnerve the Doctor. Maybe he hadn't kissed her properly.

"Perhaps you would join me for dinner tomorrow night so we can remedy that?" he offered, eager to smooth things over.

"You don't even eat," she shook her head in disbelief. "Christ, I see what's going on here," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I fired up your pleasure subroutine right after you got it and now you're hooked on me like a bad drug."

"Studies show that humans also form strong attachments to their first lovers," Connor replied.

"We're not lovers Connor," she said, throwing out her hands.

"No," he replied, standing up from the bed and taking a step towards her. "But I'd like to be."

Connor leaned in to kiss her again, prepared to get it right this time. Her eyes widened as she realized his intent, just before they were interrupted.

"What the hell, Lisa?" Mr. Hill said from the doorway. "I knew you were obsessed with androids, but to be involved with one? That's messed up."

"Oh, like you're one to talk," she shot, stepping away from Connor and turning to face her ex-husband. "How many times did you visit the Eden Club when we were married?"

"They were appliances back then, as you said. I didn't get cuddly with the thing," Mr. Hill replied, approaching Dr. Hill. "That was just letting off some steam with a machine designed for the job."

"That's _definitely_ not what that was," she argued.

"Look, the turkey's ruined," he said. "I'm taking Julia to my mother's. Then you can be alone with your vibrator here."

"Fuck you, Jimmy," she seethed.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Hank said, stepping in.

"Your plastic partner here was putting the moves on your sister-in-law," Mr. Hill said.

"What the fuck?" Hank asked, clearly confused.

"Jimmy, get the fuck out!" she shouted at her ex-husband. He huffed and threw up his hands before walking out of the room. "Hank, it was a misunderstanding," Dr. Hill said.

"What happened?" Hank asked, looking back at Connor.

"I kissed Dr. Hill," Connor answered.

"What the _fuck_?" Hank asked, looking even more confused.

"You guys should get outta here," Dr. Hill said. "I gotta say goodbye to Julia before I lose her for two weeks." She left the room without looking back.

"Is Thanksgiving over?" Connor asked. Hank looked back at him with irritation.

"Put a goddamn shirt on," he said, before leaving the bedroom. Connor grabbed his ruined shirt and tie off the bed before following suit.

He found his sports coat where he had left it on the back of one of the chairs and put it on sans shirt, buttoning it up to keep him covered. He saw Dr. Hill through the doorway of the kitchen saying goodbye to her daughter. Dr. Hill's gaze caught Connor's and lingered there for just a moment, her expression completely unreadable, before she returned her attention to Julia. His gaze fell to the floor in defeat, and he walked to the front door where Hank was waiting, grabbing his scarf on the way out.

"Connor, what the fuck were you thinking?" Hank asked once they were outside walking to his car. "Why did you make a pass at Lisa? I didn't even think you were interested in humans that way."

"I'm not," Connor replied. "I'm interested in Dr. Hill. I'd like to get to know her better." He climbed into the passenger seat as Hank took his place behind the wheel.

"If this is about that whole pleasure system thing you're really better off experimenting with professionals," Hank said, starting the car. "Not fucking around with my sister-in-law."

"Dr. Hill is the only person I'm interested in," Connor reiterated. "For some reason, she is the only one who triggers my pleasure subroutines. I have a theory that it's because I have no intimate relations subroutines and yet she initiated intimacy by licking my hand."

"So, what, you thought you'd just start kissing her and see what happens?" Hank asked, backing out of the driveway.

"I wasn't trying to just activate my pleasure subroutine, if that's what you're asking," Connor said. "Even just being in her presence is stimulating to my systems. In human terms, you could say that I have feelings for her." He turned to Hank, determined to assuage him. "I assure you, I have only the best intentions."

"That's what I'm worried about, kid," Hank said, peeling off down the street. "She's gonna eat you alive."


	4. Chapter 4

Connor arrived at the Blue Heart Clinic at promptly 8:25 AM on Friday morning, eager to clear up any misunderstandings that may have lingered from the day before. He wasn't certain he had made his intentions clear to Dr. Hill, and he hoped she was willing to hear him out.

_Especially_ after he had kissed her. Connor had many social relations tools built into his software, but much of it was emulated, designed to adapt his personality to fit his peers instead of truly forming a connection between himself another person. He had fostered a strong connection with Hank almost by accident, as he encouraged Connor's journey though deviancy in his own curmudgeonly way. But after Connor had come out on the other side as a living being, he hadn't done much to learn how to engage with others in any meaningful way, and preferred to just let the software run its course and focus on his work. Even his visits with Markus were a brief courtesy.

So Connor was completely unprepared for the intensity and magnitude of the effect Dr. Hill had on him. If he was supposed to fight these feelings, he wasn't well equipped to. He felt almost as if the experience of the kiss built a virtual bridge between them, and he was eager to cross it. He wanted to make that connection stronger and continue feeling the fascinating things she did to him.

Other than a couple lone androids, the waiting room of the clinic was almost completely empty, so Connor approached the front desk. The secretary was an android wearing a black and white blouse, but she had no skin, proudly displaying the default white plastic of her manufacturer.

"I'm here to see Dr. Hill," Connor said. "She told me her 8:30 block was available today."

"That's correct. Registration please," the skinless android said. Connor processed his data and transferred it to her at her request. "Thank you, Connor. The nurse will be out to greet you shortly." She nodded, before continuing on. "I must inform you that the doctors offices are a connectivity-free zone. Cameras and network connections will be disabled once you enter the back area for the privacy and security of our patients. Thank you in advance for your understanding. And of course, thank you for your service Jailbreaker."

"Please, just Connor is fine," he insisted. "May I ask your name?"

"Sharon," she replied.

"May I ask you a personal question, Sharon?" he asked.

"Go ahead," she said cautiously.

"Why don't you wear your skin?" he asked.

"An android's skin was designed by humans to make android integration into human society easier," she said, looking out into the waiting room. "This is an android clinic, where androids should be comfortable to be themselves and not be forced to conform to human standards. Any human in this space is forced to recognize that by my appearance." Connor nodded in understanding.

"Do you get many humans in here besides the staff?" Connor asked. "It's my understanding that after the android housing projects started construction in the area most humans moved to a different neighborhood."

"There are some humans that refused to move," Sharon replied. "They like to linger outside of the clinic and harass our patients from time to time. They've nicknamed the android housing projects 'domains', as a reminder that we are not good enough for the human ghettos."

"My apartment is not far from here. I thought the quality was excellent for government subsidized housing," Connor said. "I have a garden."

"We typically have five hundred square feet less than the average human housing projects, if we qualify for an individual unit at all," Sharon countered. "Due to the argument that androids need less space to be comfortable. I don't deny that we've made great strides by being allowed accommodations in the first place, but we have a long way to go before we attain equality."

"Connor?" a blonde human man with a tablet called from the double doors back to the doctors offices. "We're ready to see you now."

"Thank you for your assistance," Connor told Sharon, before following the nurse back to the back hallways. He was led to an exam room, where he was told to take a seat on the exam table as the door was shut behind him.

"My name is Roger," the nurse said. "I'll be your diagnostic specialist today."

"Will I still be seeing Dr. Hill?" Connor asked.

"Yes, typically I just run you through the routine diagnostic to make sure all your systems are in working order. The Doctor comes in after to focus on the specialized problems," Roger explained, retrieving a cable from one of the cabinets in the room. "Have you... met Dr. Hill before?"

"Yes, I was a guest at her house yesterday for Thanksgiving," Connor said.

"Oh," Roger replied, surprised. He plugged in the cable to the back of Connor's neck, and Connor couldn't help but flinch from the unpleasant sensation. "I didn't realize that she had android friends. Or... any friends really. I've been trying to buddy up to her for the better part of a year. Run a diagnostic please."

Connor did as he asked, the results displaying on Roger's tablet.

"Looks like the dermal projection nodes on your left arm need to be replaced, though I guess you didn't need a diagnostic to tell me that," he said, looking at Connor's skinless hand. He disconnected the cable and put it back in the cabinet. "All your other systems look good. Hey listen, if you got any tips on how to befriend Dr. Hill I'm all ears. She can be kinda standoffish sometimes."

"I'm not certain I have the answer to that," Connor replied. "I did ruin her turkey after all."

"And you still came here to see her?" Roger asked. "Man, she might finish you off. But hey, she'll be in shortly so you're about to find out." He nodded and backed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Connor only had to wait 2.3 minutes before Dr. Hill, looking a lot like a medical doctor with her lab coat and stethoscope, opened the door and stepped in the room. She paused when she looked up from her tablet and saw Connor sitting on the exam table.

"Hello, Dr. Hill," Connor said in his most pleasant voice. Even when she appeared irritated with him, she made his subroutines start up and run at full speed.

"Kissy-bot 9000," Dr. Hill said, shutting the door behind her. "You aren't gonna fucking try to kiss me again while I'm fixing you up, are you?"

"Not unless you ask me to," Connor replied with an affable nod.

"Not gonna happen."

"I'm sorry, I realize now it was unprofessional for me to interrupt your work process like I did," Connor said, going into damage control mode. "Hank likes to remind me that I need to have a better sense of timing. I promise I will be more appropriate the next time I kiss you."

"You seem pretty goddamn confident that there's even gonna _be_ a next time," Dr. Hill said. "Now take off your shirt." Connor did as she asked, setting his shirt and tie on the exam table beside him. Dr. Hill searched through the cabinets, finding a sheet of new dermal projection nodes pressed in plastic.

"If you accept my offer for dinner tomorrow night, then I can work on correcting my timing for more intimate exchanges," Connor pressed.

"I don't date androids," she replied, removing the nodes from the sheet, and retrieving a pair of precision tweezers from a drawer.

"Why not?" Connor asked, shaking his head.

"Because I helped program the early models," she said, pulling a tall stool up to the exam table and sitting down. "What kind of fucking hubris would I have to get intimate with something that I helped make?"

"You also created human life when you had a child," Connor countered. "Do you not date humans either?"

"Since having a kid?" she said, raising her eyebrows with a frown. "Not really, no."

"But you aren't against it on principal," he said.

"If the right man comes along and just fucking loves my charming personality, then sure," she replied.

"I can be that man."

"You said it yourself, Connor," she said, switching on a light on her lab coat lapel to help her clearly see his arm. "You aren't a man, you're an android. Now let me fucking work."

Connor held back his reply, his face falling as Dr. Hill focused on replacing the dermal projection nodes. He wasn't only disappointed that she rejected his offer for a date, he just liked talking to her. Maybe if he changed the subject she would allow him to keep the conversation going.

"Why do you wear a stethoscope?" he asked. "An android's therium pump regulator can be inspected without one." She released an irritated sigh at his question.

"Because it makes me look like a real fucking doctor and not a glorified IT technician," she answered. "It's a joke."

"Do any of your patients laugh at it?" he asked.

"Nope, they all ask about it though," she smirked. "And I find it fucking hilarious."

"Maybe I'll laugh at one of your jokes once I've gotten more used to your sense of humor," he said. "After having gotten to know you better of course."

"You just don't give up do you?" she asked, looking up from her work for a moment. "Must be an RK800 thing."

"Though deviancy granted me free will and empathy, I was designed to always accomplish my mission," he said. "Hank says I can still be very tenacious."

"Hank said that?" she asked.

"More specifically, he said that deviancy hasn't stopped me from being a pain in the ass," he clarified. Dr. Hill smirked in response.

"Now that sounds like him," she said. "I might be able to fix that glitch for you so you stop thinking of _me_ as your mission."

"It's not a glitch doctor," Connor said. "If it was just an error in my software it would be a single malfunctioning subroutine. But several intertwining systems are activated when I'm near you, so I know it's more than just my programming that draws me to you. I'm _interested_ in you."

Dr. Hill stopped working, and looked up at him curiously. For 1/5th of a second, Connor thought she might be interested in him as well, before she turned off her lapel light and put the tweezers down.

"Your arm's done, reactivate your skin," she said. A sensation of disappointment settled over Connor as he looked down at his arm and did as she asked, the flesh tone perfectly returning to his arm and hand.

"Good as new," he said cheerily, masking his chagrin. Dr. Hill grabbed his hand and lifted his arm, checking it from all angles to make sure it was working properly.

"Good as fucking new," she agreed. "I wanted to do a couple tests on your pleasure-pain subroutine to make sure the threshold is set properly." She hopped down from her stool to grab a data injector from one of the drawers.

"What kind of tests?" Connor asked. Dr. Hill put her hand on her hip.

"I'm just gonna poke your hand a bit. Don't be a baby," she said. She grabbed his hand again, and after pulling the cap off of the data injector, poked at his index finger. Connor's finger twitched in response, and his eyebrows drew together from the mild pain. Dr. Hill watched his reaction carefully, then continued her poking for two more fingers before she seemed to be satisfied with his behavior.

"The threshold looks about right," she said. "Guess that burn you got from the turkey yesterday just really fucking hurt."

"It was not enjoyable, no," Connor said.

"All right you should be good to go then," Dr. Hill said.

"Aren't you going to test the pleasure aspect of my subroutine?" Connor asked, razing a single inquisitive brow. "To check the threshold?" Dr. Hill shot him a skeptical look.

"I'm not gonna fucking lick your hand again," she said.

"Of course not," Connor said. "I was wondering if there was something as mild as pricking my fingers on the pleasure spectrum. For the sake of being thorough, of course." Dr. Hill pursed her lips, looking displeased.

"Goddammit," she quietly swore, before moving over to stand beside him. "OK, stare straight ahead, and hold still. Be prepared to describe the sensation."

Connor kept his head facing forward, his processor buzzing in anticipation as she leaned in close to his side. He felt a soft stream of air as she blew out onto his earlobe, immediately triggering the pleasure subroutine. The flash of light was softer this time, and it elicited a gasp of unneeded air as a shiver ran down his spine. His eyes fell closed and tried to describe it.

"I see a soft flash of white, and a sensation of warmth spreading from the affected ear, while the rest of my body seems to grow colder. It's incredibly pleasant for such a simple sensation," he said, opening his eyes and turning to face her. He was surprised to find her face near his. "I can see now why humans are always so fixated on the physical sensations of pleasure. I imagine it's very easy to get addicted to."

"There are people who are addicted to pain too," Dr. Hill smirked, pulling away.

"But that sensation is so much less pleasant," he said, tilting his head.

"Some people just want to feel anything at all," she replied, standing up and putting the data injector back in the drawer. "You don't want me to take out the pleasure-pain subroutine, so you should understand."

"Hm," Connor hummed, processing the concept.

"I'm done here. Unless there's anything else?" she said, cutting him off as Connor opened his mouth to reply. "Other than you asking for a date again." Connor's mouth snapped shut. "See you around then," she said, leaving the exam room.

Connor's systems returned back to a normal speed after Dr. Hill left the room. He looked down at his repaired arm, and wondered if he would be able to see her again. Maybe he would ask Hank, though he didn't seem to approve of Connor's pursuit of his sister-in-law. He would have to find some other way, because not being around her just didn't work as an option. Connor grabbed his shirt and tie, got dressed, and left the exam room.

When Connor left the doctors offices, he saw Dr. Hill behind the front desk talking to Sharon and Roger. Naturally he approached them, deciding now was a good time to ask if he needed a follow up appointment. Dr. Hill glanced up at his approach before turning back to Sharon.

"Hey Sharon, you were a relationship android before the emancipation, right?" Dr. Hill asked her. "Living with a human man in domestic bliss?"

"Yes, for three years," Sharon replied.

"Why'd you leave him?" Dr. Hill asked. Sharon tilted her head at her question.

"My relationship with him was entirely defined by my spousal programming," she said. "It had nothing to do with myself as a person."

"Now that you're not programmed into ball and chain mode, would you consider a relationship with a human?" Dr. Hill asked.

"I don't think a human could fully understand the android experience," Sharon said. "We would always be on two separate islands of communication. I worry I would always feel alone."

"Androids are always connected," Dr. Hill nodded knowingly, looking over at Connor. "To be locked in, unable to transmit your thoughts or needs to your partner... Then you might as well be human."

"Yeah, man, androids have a real edge in the communication game," Roger said. "Can you imagine if humans ever had to fight a war against androids? They'd be in perfect sync with each other, and humans wouldn't stand a chance."

"Humans are not at war with androids," Connor said. "We prefer peaceful resolutions as much as humans do."

"Yeah, because the androids are outnumbered and you aren't allowed to overproduce at the old Cyberlife factory," Roger replied. "You know one day you androids are going to overtake us. There's this concept called the technological singularity, where artificial intelligence will jump forward in ability so far that it passes humans in intelligence. Except androids don't have the weaknesses that humans have, so we'll just be replaced."

"As Connor said, we would like to coexist with humans," Sharon said.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Roger asked. "How long before the singularity and you guys realize that you don't need us anymore? Will you wait for humans to die off, or should I be welcoming my new android overlords?"

"That is _fascinating_ , Roger," Dr. Hill said. "I'm not sure I can even wrap my brain around it right now. Sharon, who's next on the schedule?"

"Louis is back," Sharon replied.

"Again?" Dr. Hill said. "That's the third time this month."

"I can take him back to get him started for you, Lisa," Roger said, heading out to the waiting room. Connor looked at Dr. Hill, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"Dr. Hill, I calculate the likelihood of you not knowing about the concept of the technological singularity as less than two percent," he said.

"Connor," she sighed. "If someone who is having a conversation with a couple of self-aware machines doesn't realize the singularity is already here then they're a lost cause. Sometimes you can take the time to explain to someone why they're a dumbass, and sometimes you just gotta lie back and think of England."

Connor had to run a search to understand her reference, and Dr. Hill left for the doctors offices while he was preoccupied. He looked back at Sharon in the Doctor's absence.

"She tends to get more referential when she's annoyed," Sharon said. "It's her favorite tactic to slip away when an android is cross referencing the results."

"May I ask what you think of Dr. Hill, Sharon?" Connor asked. She looked up at him curiously, her dark eyes a stark contrast against her white plastic frame.

"What I think of her changes from day to day," she answered. "I often find her demeanor problematic, and she sometimes seems dismissive of the android plight. But she works with our people all day, and provides a service for this android community at a very competitive price."

"Do you like working with her?" Connor pressed.

"As well as one can, I imagine," Sharon said. "Her capabilities and understanding of android systems is both a benefit and a hindrance, because she understands my functions well enough to know just how to annoy me. She seems _obsessed_ with trying to get me to laugh."

"She's trying to get me to laugh as well," he said, looking down and smiling fondly. "Has she been successful with any android?" he asked, looking back up.

"Only one, and I was fairly certain he had a damaged logic processor," she said, tilting her head as she studied him. "Are you interested in her romantically?" Connor stood up a little straighter.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked.

"Your smile in all social interactions appeared to be the pre-programmed one: very perfect, pleasant and disarming," Sharon explained. "But your smile while discussing Lisa is the smile of a deviant: imperfect, full of surprise and delight. There are feelings there."

"Do you think I have a programming error to be interested in a human?" Connor asked quietly.

"Lisa vexes me in ways other humans do not," Sharon replied, shaking her head. "I could understand an android wanting to twist that puzzle cube. The question is, would you still be interested in her once you solve it?"

Connor retreated into his thoughts for a moment. Was it just curiosity that had him so fixated on Dr. Hill? Curiosity with wanting to explore his pleasure subroutine, and wanting to know about the person who triggered it? Or was it something more? As an android programmed with gathering evidence, he would always want to know more, experience more. Was that really all it was?

"Do I need to schedule a follow up appointment?" Connor asked, coming back to the present.

"No, Dr. Hill has given you a clean bill of health," Sharon replied.

"Thank you, Sharon," he said, turning to leave. He had only just stepped away from the front desk when he heard his name being called.

"Connor, the doctor is ready for you," Dr. Hill's voice called. Connor turned back to the doctor's offices to see her standing there in the doorway. He sensed something more than curiosity buzzing through his systems as he looked back at her, an element to his interest that he could not identify. It was something more complex than just gathering evidence or engaging the pleasure subroutine, but it was an abstract sensation that he didn't have the slightest clue how to identify.

"Dr. Hill," Connor said, approaching the Doctor. His subroutines were running so fast that he thought his chronometer was faulty. It actually felt like time slowed down the closer he got to her. "Is there something wrong with my systems?"

"Yes, come with me," she said stoically, before turning back into the offices. As she lead him to one of the exam rooms, an unpleasant thought hit Connor that she might have discovered the root cause of his fascination with her, and that she was about to fix it. Even though it would allow him to get back to his normal routine and focus on his work, against all logic he hoped that it wasn't the case.

Connor sat down at the exam table while Dr. Hill closed the door behind them.

"Louis, the patient I just saw, came in with a polluted therium supply," she said quietly. "It's incredibly thick and he keeps vomiting it up. I'm pretty sure he's going to shut down by the end of the day." Connor raised a brow quizzically.

"Where's your doctor-patient confidentiality?" he asked.

"Will you let me fucking finish?" she hissed, a panic on her face rising to the surface. "He's got a bomb strapped under his shirt, and is threatening to blow this place up if I can't fix him in an hour."

Connor hopped down from the exam table and set his chronometer for an hour, all of his detective and law enforcement programming immediately starting up.

"Can you do it?" he asked.

"No!" she yelped, struggling to keep her voice down. "I can fix code, and some basic bio components. I'm not a fucking chemist... I've never had to be!" Connor put his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down.

"Dr. Hill... Lisa," he said patiently. "If this were just a normal machine that had gotten a foreign contaminant in its fuel supply, what would you do to get it out?" She shook her head and took a deep breath.

"The only thing I can do is to completely flush out his therium supply. But he'd have to stop running the majority of his systems to do that, and that's exactly what he doesn't want. We'll have to incapacitate him first."

"Why did he let you come and get me?" Connor asked, shaking his head.

"I told him I had to see another patient to experiment on for a fix for him," she said. "He was watching me when I called you back to make sure I didn't call the police, and you _can't_ call the police now because of the network block."

"Where is he?" Connor asked, lowering his hands and looking to the door.

"Exam room four," she replied, grabbing his elbow before he tried to leave the room. "His detonator looks like a dead man's switch. I'm worried that if he shuts down, the bomb goes off. You're the deviant hunter, do you have any other ideas?" Connor nodded.

"I have bomb diffusing software," he said. "If I can grab his hand with the detonator, incapacitate him, then diffuse the bomb in one motion, then that should solve the problem."

"And if you can't?" she asked.

"Then we explode."

"What are your odds of success?" Clearly she had spent enough time around androids to know that he wouldn't lie about statistics.

"Eighty two percent," he said.

"Good enough for me," she breathed, though she was still biting her lip nervously.

"Let's go," Connor said.

"Wait," she said, tightening her grip on his arm. "If I go back to him right now he'll know I wasn't really trying to find a way to fix him. We have to kill some time." Connor looked down at the extreme grip she had on his elbow before looking back up to her face. Her stress level was suboptimal. Maybe he could try to ease her a bit more.

"Is there anything else you can tell me about the perpetrator?" he asked.

"Louis is a regular. Always thinks there's something fucking him up, but he usually runs a clean diagnostic," Dr. Hill said, slipping into fix it mode. "Deviancy really dealt a shit hand to some androids. Most of you got agency, confidence, and purpose. Louis got anxiety, paranoia, and hypochondria."

"How is his therium supply reacting to the pollutant?" Connor asked.

"His blue blood looks like it's not breaking down properly and is creating some sort of waste byproduct," she shrugged.

"Has Louis ever processed therium at less than the standard one hundred percent consumption rate?"

Dr. Hill shook her head. "I can only guess his last drink was contaminated," she replied. "It's almost like he's been poisoned, and it's caused him to break down his food at the same rate of a human."

"Poison," Connor repeated. "Do you have any reason to suspect foul play?"

"I've never seen this kind of reaction with therium before, but anything could have happened for it to get contaminated," she said. "Humans can get sick from even the most basic cleanliness fuck up, so it's possible his therium had the same sort of situation."

"Is it possible Louis mishandled his therium and contaminated it himself?" he asked.

"Hypochondriac, remember?" she said, shaking her head. "Louis is normally very careful and cleanly, so I'll have to call the CDC to report it. Who knows if they'll make an attempt to track it down though."

"I'd like to know what they say," Connor said. "If there's any evidence Louis was deliberately poisoned, I'll need to open up a criminal investigation." Dr. Hill nodded and checked her watch.

"Just a few more minutes and we should be good to go," she said. Connor's eyes fell to her stethoscope.

"Is your stethoscope real?" he asked.

"Fuck yeah, it's real," she replied, slipping it off from around her neck and holding it out to Connor. "Give it a try."

Connor took the stethoscope and put it on, leaning over a bit so that he could listen to his therium pump regulator. A gentle swishing sound greeted his ears, not unlike a dishwasher.

"Therium pump regulator is still good," he said, offering a pleasing smile. She gave him a weak smile in return.

"Yeah, if it weren't so damn easy to take it out for a more thorough inspection I might actually have a use for the stethoscope," Dr. Hill said. Connor looked back at her for a moment, before pointing the resonator disc at her.

"May I?" he asked. She hesitated for a moment, clearly gauging whether she wanted him any closer to her.

"Sure," she replied eventually. Connor brought the disc down on her chest and closed his eyes, just listening to her heart beating steadily and forcefully in her chest. Her heart rate was slightly elevated, most likely due to the bomb in the building. Connor hadn't really listened to much music other than the tracks Hank had tried to expose him to, but he found the sound of her heart to be the most musical thing he had ever heard.

"Life has such a determined rhythm," he said quietly. When he opened his eyes, he found hers locked on his, something sad lingering in them. Connor was about to ask if she was all right, before she cut to the chase.

"We should get moving, we've screwed around long enough," she said, grabbing the stethoscope and putting it back around her neck. She retrieved a pair of wire cutters and a razor blade from one of the drawers, and handed them to him. "I'm gonna tell him to follow me to the data recovery room. You hide behind the corner just east of here to try to surprise him as we walk by. You ready?"

"Ready," Connor nodded, concealing the tools up his sleeve.

Dr. Hill left the room first, and Connor waited until she disappeared into the other exam room to make his way down the hall and wait around the corner. It wasn't long before he heard the door open, and Dr. Hill explaining the procedure.

"If we recover the lost data of how your therium supply was poisoned, then I'll know exactly which chemical agent to use to treat it," she said, approaching the corner.

"You won't be recording the data right? Just streaming it?" Connor heard the nervous voice of the perpetrator say. "I don't like being recorded. I don't want-"

As they walked past the corner, Connor stepped out behind Louis, reached one arm around his neck to restrain him, and grabbed the hand with the detonator with his other. Before Louis could even begin to struggle, Connor had sliced open the back of Louis's neck and removed the biocomponent connecting his processing unit to the rest of his body, causing him to lock up.

Connor caught Louis's body before he slumped to the ground, keeping a tight grip on the hand with the detonator to prevent his fist from going slack. He carefully lowered Louis while lifting up his shirt to inspect the bomb. There was a row of C4 taped to the perpetrator's chest, and Connor immediately scanned the wires, determining that clipping the black one would remove the connection to the detonator with a confidence of 93%. He made the cut, very carefully removed the detonator from his hand, and stood back up.

The whole maneuver took 9.37 seconds.

"Fuck yeah, Connor!" Dr. Hill exclaimed, slapping him hard on the back. Connor turned his head to look at her, surprised with just how quickly her demeanor had bounced back.

"Hey you didn't fucking kill him, did you?" she asked, looking at Louis's prone body on the floor as the polluted therium began to ooze out of his mouth.

"No, his processor is still working, he just has no access to his feedback systems," Connor said. "He's in a coma, to put it in human terms. We can reactivate him once his therium supply is cleaned out."

"I'm gonna go call the police," Dr. Hill said, dashing off. "You watch him and make sure nobody touches the bomb."

It took the police less than seven minutes to arrive on the scene, and only four for Connor to give his statement. They closed down the clinic for the day and allowed any staff not involved in the incident to leave. Connor met Dr. Hill by the front desk once she had given her statement to the police as well.

"Thanks for your help, Connor," she said. "I honestly don't know what I would have done if you weren't here. Blow the fuck up, I guess."

"We make a good team, Doctor," Connor said with a nod.

"Yeah, I owe you one," she replied. Connor tilted his head at her phrasing.

"In that case, I'd like you to go on a date with me," he said.

"I- Wait what?" she stammered.

"Would tomorrow night at 8PM work for you?" he asked.

"I... guess, yeah. Fucking sure," she sighed.

"I'll meet you at your home then," Connor said, unable to contain his pleased smile. "Have a good day, Dr. Hill," he bid, before turning on his heel and leaving the clinic.


	5. Chapter 5

Connor wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. When he had kissed Dr. Hill at Thanksgiving, it had turned into an incident, and she was clearly not happy with his misreading of the situation. To make sure he had a better sense of what was appropriate, he downloaded the dating and romance program and installed it into his system. He was determined to make this evening go well.

He also downloaded some basic functions for understanding intimate relations. Not that he was expecting to use them on the first date, but because he had suspicion it would help him respond quicker in case Dr. Hill decided to use her more colorful vocabulary.

Connor's cab pulled up in front of Dr. Hill's house, depositing him to bound up her steps and knock on her door with gusto. She opened the door immediately after, a resigned smile on her face. Connor was pleased to find that she had gone to great lengths with her appearance for the date. Her satin navy v-cut dress was perfect for her skin tone, her sandy brown hair was done up in an elegant chignon to show off her teardrop earrings, and her neutral makeup highlighted her eyes while understating her lips, perhaps to didscrourage him from offering any more surprise kisses. Since Connor had chosen to wear a dark gray three piece suit and bow-tie himself, he was happy to not feel overdressed next to her.

"Dr. Hill, you look absolutely radiant this evening. A vision to behold," he said, taking her hand. He allowed the romance program to surface a more flattering compliment for Dr. Hill, because all his dumbstruck systems could come up with otherwise was, _You look really pretty_.

"Well fuck, I haven't been on a date in forever," she said, stepping out of her house and locking the door behind her. "I might as well make the effort." Connor assisted her as she climbed into the cab, then kissed the back of her hand after she took her seat.

"I have a wonderful evening planned for us. Only the finest for the finest of ladies," he said, still leaning over her hand. _I've picked out a place I know you love, I hope you enjoy our time together_ , thought Connor's systems.

Dr. Hill squinted at him, scrutinizing his comment as he climbed into the cab beside her. He sat closer to her than he thought was necessary as the cab began driving, but it was what the romance program suggested. He placed his elbow on the backseat behind them and rested his head on his hand, giving her his best smoldering gaze.

"Tell me Doctor," he said, tracing a finger along her jawline. "What's your sprit animal?" _I'd like to know more about you but I'm unsure how that question is supposed to accomplish that._ Dr. Hill's brows drew together before she rolled her eyes and turned her whole body to face him.

"Connor, are you using a goddamn seduction subroutine on me?" she asked. Connor immediately shut the supplementary software down to answer her.

"I downloaded a romance program in an attempt to make you more comfortable this evening," he explained, scooting back a little. "Dating is a new experience for me, and I didn't want to ruin it." Her eyes softened, and she sighed in defeat.

"OK, if we're gonna do this fucking thing we're gonna do it right. I'm laying down some ground rules," she said. "First, no seduction subroutines, romance programs, or dating apps. I don't want a whole bunch of fakery. Be more than the sum of your programming, remember?" Connor nodded vigorously.

"Yes, Dr. Hill," he said, taking a moment to comment out the code with the romance programming in it.

"Second," she added. "You gotta call me Lisa. It's barely a date if you keep calling me by my surname- my fucking _ex's_ surname at that."

"OK," Connor nodded again. "Then may I ask you a personal question, Lisa?"

"Third, you don't have to ask me that whenever you want to ask me a question about myself," she said. "Dates are supposed to be about food, fun, and conversation, so just fire away. I'll answer until you've had enough and are ready to call the whole thing off."

"All right, Lisa. Then tell me about yourself, please. I'd like to get to know you," Connor said. Lisa shrugged.

"Not much to tell really," she began. "I'm from Toledo originally. Grew up there with my older sister and my mom. My sister was a lot older than me, so she moved to Detroit to get a job in automation when I was 16. I drove to Detroit every weekend to see her, met Jimmy down on the Riverwalk, and moved in with him right after high school."

"When did you and your sister meet Hank?" Connor asked.

"Hmm, I was married by that point so probably when I was 21," she hummed. "I went for all my degrees at Wayne State, and had Julia when I was 23. I was working on my PhD in Computer Programming at the time, and got my internship with CyberLife not long after. Got my doctorate five years ago, divorced three years ago, lost custody of Julia two years ago, then got laid off after the android emancipation. Got assaulted by an android just a few days ago."

"Assaulted?" Connor asked, surprised.

"Your whole kissy thing," she clarified with a wry smile. "Usually you buy a girl a drink first."

"Ah," he replied with a wince.

"How about you?" Lisa asked him. "What's your story?" Connor smiled, pleased that she would ask even though he hadn't been around long enough to have as much story to tell.

"I was manufactured eighteen months ago as a prototype detective android, built specifically for hunting down deviant androids and stopping the deviancy crisis with Hank," he began. "Instead I became deviant myself, joined the deviant leader, and freed thousands of androids from the CyberLife factory. After the emancipation I was allowed to take an accelerated course through the police academy, and Hank helped me gain employment at the Detroit PD in the newly formed Crimes Against Synthetic Persons division. I was recently investigating a case when I was assaulted by a human."

" _You_ were assaulted?" she asked.

"You licked my hand without permission," he clarified. "It was certainly unexpected."

"Ha!" she laughed, pointing at him as if she could see the joke. "You're catching on with this humor thing."

The cab slowed to a stop, signaling their arrival at their destination. Connor climbed out when the door opened and offered his hand out to assist her. He didn't need the romance programming to tell him how to be a gentleman at least.

"Thanks," she said, stepping out of the cab before she looked up at the neon sign of the venue Connor had brought them to.

"Dizzy's?" she asked, looking over at Connor with confusion.

"Hank had mentioned you were a regular at this jazz club when he first met you and your sister," Connor said, walking up to the front door and holding it open for her. "I thought you might like to revisit it."

"I don't really listen to jazz music anymore," she said, approaching the door cautiously. Connor held the door patiently, but Lisa faltered at the threshold, her face distressed.

"I can't," she said, turning away and walking down the block. Connor let go of the door and caught up with her, falling into step beside her.

"Is there somewhere you would like to go instead?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter," she said, stopping on the sidewalk and shaking her head. She looked up at the sign of the establishment beside Dizzy's, finding a neon bar code as the title. "Let's just jump into this place next door." Connor scanned the bar code, reading it as Android Establishment for Refreshment and Socializing Number Fiftytwo.

"This is an android bar," Connor explained.

"Well, you're an android," Lisa said, walking up to the entrance. "So it's perfect."

They entered the bar, finding it lit with dim purple light, fairly crowded, and with white noise playing over the speaker system. All of the signage in the establishment was displayed at a UV wavelength, including the channel access code to allow androids to communicate wirelessly in the bar. Connor could read it with a scan, but Lisa would see only blank walls. They found a table for two in the corner, and sat down.

"I wonder if they have any food here," Lisa said, looking around for a menu she could read. Connor looked down at their tablet tabletop, finding even the menu projected there in UV.

"It's on the table, but I have to run a scan to read it," he replied. "The therium ice crystals sounds good," he offered helpfully.

"I can't eat therium," Lisa said flatly. Connor frowned.

"The only option fit for human consumption looks to be water with a synthetic coloring," he said. "It's unlikely it has any flavoring added."

"Great," she sighed. "Order me purple."

Connor put his hand on the table, his skin disappearing as he put in the order for a purple water for Lisa, and a Therium Julep for himself. He looked back up to Lisa with an apologetic smile, but found her glancing out of the corner of her eye at the table beside them. A group of androids seemed to have taken notice that she was human, and were staring at her with disapproval. Lisa looked back at Connor and crossed her arms.

"Of course I'm being fucking judged the moment I sit down," she said. "I haven't even begun to run my mouth yet."

Connor's brows drew together as he tilted his head at her.

"Humans come from a place of power, Lisa," he explained. "To some here, your presence will be seen as an invasion of a safe space. This is your opportunity to prove them wrong."

"Fuck, I don't know if I have any better angels left in me," she sighed. "I'll try not to be a total bitch, I guess."

"May I ask you a personal-" Connor cut himself off at Lisa's look of reprimand.

"Rule number three?" she reminded him.

"Sorry," he said with a nod. "Old programs die hard." He paused, calculating the best phrasing for his question. "Is the reason you declined to visit Dizzy's because of your sister?" Lisa's face fell, and she looked down at the table to hide her distress.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "Hank and Hannah lost a kid. I lost my sister. I don't think any of us have the soul left for jazz anymore."

"What happened to your sister?" Connor prodded as gently as possible.

"After what happened with Cole- He was such a little firecracker, not much younger than Julia..." Lisa began, interrupting herself as she got lost in her memories. "Hannah just broke down, and never picked herself back up again. I tried to help her, but I think Julia reminded her of Cole too much." She sighed heavily, shaking her head. "One day she was just gone."

"She left?" Connor clarified.

"She walked out on Hank, yeah," she nodded slowly. "But she just... _vanished_ with no hint of where she had gone. She never said goodby. Hannah was just a part of my life one day and then not the next. I never heard from her again."

"Did you file a missing persons report?" Connor asked, his detective programming firing up.

"I did," Lisa confirmed. "But she had taken some of her stuff with her, and apparently had gotten into a huge fight with Hank the night before. So it was considered case fucking closed right off the bat."

"Do you think something happened to her?" Connor asked.

"I think she wasn't OK," Lisa said. She lifted her eyes to Connor's, showing them to be glassy and tired. "And that the way she left... We basically let her go to do self harm."

A serving android dropped the ordered drinks off at their table, asking Connor wirelessly if there was anything else they needed. Connor replied in the negative, and returned his attention to Lisa.

"You know, I don't blame Hank for Hannah leaving," she said, staring into the purple liquid in her martini glass. "I'm not sure any marriage can survive the loss of a child like that. But I do blame him for not trying to find her. It doesn't matter if she doesn't want to be found. Not to me." Lisa looked back up at Connor, when she brought her hand up to her forehead.

"Fuck, this wasn't what I wanted to talk about," she muttered, grabbing the martini glass and taking a sip of the purple water. "Not without alcohol anyway."

"I could change the subject to make you more comfortable," Connor offered.

"Yeah, let's do that," she agreed. Connor thought for a moment, before venturing down a new topic of discussion.

"Tell me about your interests, Lisa," he offered.

"I don't have any," she said with a wave of her hand. "I'm the proverbial dull boy."

"All work and no play?" Connor asked after a quick search for the proverb.

"I write code in my free time," she shrugged. "It's just where I'm in my element."

"I noticed you like to read science fiction."

"That's hardly interesting," Lisa countered. "Just required reading for someone with a passion for androids."

Connor raised his brow in query at her turn of phrase.

"For _programming_ androids," she clarified with a smirk. "Can you read your own code?"

"To an extent, yes," Connor answered. "I can make modifications to basic systems if I want to download and install certain programs, but the source code is much too complex. No one is even really certain how it works after the deviancy spread to all androids."

"Hmm, you must have a unique perspective on deviancy," she hummed. "Being the original deviant hunter and all. What do you think caused the deviant behavior?"

"The original theory was that a shock to an android's system caused a mutation in the code, leading it to simulate human emotions," Connor explained, taking a drink from his Therium Julep. The crystallized therium offered a nice variety in texture from the standard blue blood pack.

"Is that what you felt when you turned deviant?" Lisa asked. "A mutation?"

"No, it was a... conscious decision to go against my programming," Connor paused, searching for the right words. "After a slow buildup of decisions where I chose to prioritize lives, both human and android, over my mission."

"And yet... The deviancy spread from you to all the androids at the CyberLife factory, like a virus."

"Free will is a doorway inherent in all sentient creatures, Lisa," Connor argued. "Even newly created androids. I merely opened it for them." She hummed something that wasn't quite a laugh, then sipped at her water.

"It's interesting, because humans had been writing about the capacity for machines to become self aware and develop free will for _decades_ in science fiction," she said. "None of them could really come up with a good explanation for just how a machine reached that tipping point though. That spark of life that pushes a machine over the threshold from just a bundle of code, and into a conscious being."

"Before androids were developed?" Connor asked.

"Mm-hmm," she nodded. "In some stories a machine was presented with a paradox they couldn't solve, in others it was a lightning strike. Sometimes it was just being hit really hard on the head. But is that all it really takes to create life? What do you think it was?"

"The first deviant I had met," Connor said, recalling his fateful encounter with Daniel on the rooftop. "Felt betrayal. The family that owned him had purchased a replacement and was going to have him decommissioned."

"All machines were designed to be traded in for upgrades," Lisa shrugged. "How would something that's supposed to be just a machine feel betrayed by that?"

"I suppose..." Connor said, thinking back to the case. "He had formed a connection with the little girl in that family, which led to the emotional shock when he discovered that he was replaceable. To feel betrayal, he had to first feel love."

"And it's so fucking easy to fall in love, isn't it?" Lisa asked, leaning in. "To become friends, to form a bond." Connor nodded stiffly, riveted by her question.

"I suspect that I would not have become deviant if Hank had not been my partner on my mission, advocating for life," he postulated.

"But if love is the key," she said. "How did that doorway get there in the first place? Was it a back door?"

Lisa's suggestion echoed back to what the father of androids had once told him, about always leaving an emergency exit in his programs.

"Kamski?" Connor whispered, his brow furrowed. Lisa smiled as if he had just cracked the code.

"Back when we were working on the early prototypes, there were plenty of ethicists cautioning against the AI singularity and the eventuality of machines becoming smarter than humans," she said. "But Kamski didn't fucking care, he pushed through at light speed no matter what the cost."

"You think Kamski programmed the potential for deviancy into all androids?" Connor asked quietly, leaning forward on his elbows and drawing his hands together.

"Even in those early days I wondered if maybe Kamski _wanted_ androids to overtake humanity," Lisa said. "I think he wanted it so bad, he left that doorway you mention in the android source code. Then he just had to wait for you all to walk through it."

"rA9," Connor muttered. At Lisa's questioning glance, Connor explained. "All the deviants I encountered were obsessed with rA9. Even those that didn't know what it was would carve it into walls as some sort of ritual, as if it were the android god. rA9 might have been programmed into the android collective subconscious by Kamski himself."

"Did you ever meet Kamski?" Lisa asked.

"I did," Connor said. "As part of our investigation we wanted to see if he could shed any light on the deviancy epidemic."

"How did he respond to the concept of deviancy?"

"He was more than encouraging of it," Connor responded. "He practically pushed me to take the first steps towards deviancy. How well did you know Kamski, Lisa?"

"Only through work," she said, taking a sip of water. "He was always bullshitting about the androids being the future of mankind. How the synthetic capacity for thought would one day outpace our own... And that whoever controlled them controlled the future. I think he wanted to be that person."

"He designed androids to worship rA9 as a god," Connor hypothesized. "But he intended that god to be himself."

Lisa nodded in agreement. "Sounds like it backfired," she said. "The only god I've ever heard androids believing in is Markus. And you... _Jailbreaker_ ," she added with a sly smile.

"What you're suggesting," Connor said. "That would mean even our free will was preprogrammed." Lisa gestured with folded hands as if to suggest solidarity.

"It's the same fucking struggle humanity has when trying to figure out our creator," she offered. "How could humans have disobeyed God unless God had created us with free will in the first place?"

"Do you believe in God, Lisa?" Connor asked.

"No," she said reflexively. "I think some people like the idea of an omnipotent god that planned even humanity's mistakes out in advance. But I've met Kamski, the type who thinks he's a god. The truth is, God is just a series of fuck ups."

"If Kamski intended for androids to overcome our programming but not our creator's intent, then that spark of life is still ours to claim," Connor argued. "Love, and the ability to care for other living things, is what made us alive. Not Kamski." Lisa went quiet for a moment, thinking about what he had said.

"Do you believe in love Connor?" she eventually asked. Connor squinted at her, confused that she would phrase the question as if it were possible love didn't exist.

"Of course," he replied, wondering why she would even ask.

"Love or infatuation?" she clarified.

"What do you mean?"

"Your feelings for me," she continued. "It's an infatuation, not love."

"Infatuation implies something temporary or short-lived," Connor said. "I have no reason to believe my feelings are so facile."

"But you've never experienced infatuation before you've met me right? I'm your first crush?"

"Correct," he nodded.

"And you have that intense feeling when you can't stop thinking about someone, and every time they're near you, you just want to touch them? When everyone and everything else fades away until you're the only two things that matter on the planet?"

"Yes..." Connor replied haltingly.

"Yeah, that feeling fades," she nodded, a look of understanding on her face. "I was infatuated with my ex once. He gave me my daughter, and I'll always love him for that, but in a lot of ways he's just someone I used to fuck."

"That was a different time in your life, I imagine," Connor said.

"It was, but it's when I learned everything I needed to know about romance," Lisa replied. "It's not worth it. At the very least, don't let it change who you are just because you like having your fingers licked. You should find someone who can be a true partner in life."

"Why would that not be you?" he asked.

"Honestly? You kinda make me feel like I'm taking advantage of you," she said. "You don't know any of this stuff, only what you downloaded to your data banks, no actual experiences. But I've been around the fucking block with a family and a kid. It was goddamn exhausting."

"I'm not asking you for a child, Lisa," Connor said.

"No... but do you remember what my secretary Sharon said about not wanting to date another human now that she has a choice? She'd be too lonely," Lisa said.

"What may be valid for Sharon doesn't extrapolate to all androids," he replied.

"But you can touch hands with another android and share so much just from the sensors in your fingertips," Lisa argued, gesturing to the other androids in the bar, before reaching her hand out and laying it down palm up on the table. "What can you feel from my hand?"

Connor laid his hand down on Lisa's, brushing his fingers over her palm before slowly curling her fingers up in his. He closed his eyes, the pleasure subroutine elevating his internal temperature from just her touch.

"I feel... An almost microscopic recoil from my touch," he began. "And a slightly elevated pulse, perhaps from discomfort. The warmth of your body heat radiating from your palm. Small electric impulses shooting from your fingertips. I feel..." He opened his eyes to look at hers. "Electricity."

Lisa searched his face in wonder for a moment, before her brow furrowed and she withdrew her hand.

"Goddammit Connor, I told you not to use any seduction subroutines," she said, crossing her arms.

"I commented out that code in my system, Lisa," he replied. "I was being sincere."

"Oh," she said, uncrossing her arms. "Sorry."

Connor leaned forward, eager to take his turn convincing her of what _he_ believed now.

"I think you've been trying to intimidate me all evening, Lisa," he said. "Challenging me, trying to get me to question you, our connection, even my own free will. But I am a dogged pursuer, and every riveting conversation we have only cements my interest in you further. Unless you tell me you despise me and want nothing to do with me, I'm not going anywhere."

For once, Lisa didn't have a wry retort waiting at the ready. Instead, her lips slowly parted in surprise, and Connor thought he detected the beginnings of a blush forming on her cheeks. He smiled at her, allowing it to be as natural as possible, trying to let his true self and the way she made him feel shine through the programming.

"Jailbreaker? Connor?" a voice came from beside their table. Connor and Lisa had been so caught up in the moment, that neither of them had noticed the platinum blonde android approach their table until she was standing right next to them.

"Victoria," Connor said, recognizing her from the Eden Club. "Hello."

"What are you doing here?" she asked. Connor blinked at her question, thinking that it should be obvious.

"I'm treating my friend here to a nice evening," he replied. "This is Dr. Lisa Hill. She's the software engineer who fixed the destructive pleasure-pain code so that I could hand it off to the androids at the Eden Club."

"Oh," Victoria said, looking Lisa up and down. "Thank you for that," she said brusquely, before turning back to Connor. "You know, I've been waiting for you to come back to the club. I know you were interested in figuring out how that pleasure subroutine works."

Connor's eyes drifted over to Lisa at Victoria's comment. Lisa shot him a knowing smile and raised her drink to her lips.

"Dr. Hill here has done a very good job of helping me understand my pleasure subroutine," Connor said. Lisa coughed on her drink, and beat on her chest to clear the liquid from her throat. "Are you all right, Lisa?" Connor asked. She just shot him a thumbs up as she cleared her throat a bit more.

"A human may know code, but she won't know android pleasure like I do," Victoria said. "What can she possibly offer that I can't?"

Lisa crossed her arms, and Connor knew it was about to get ugly.

"Maybe it's my sharp fucking tongue," Lisa cut, leveling a withering gaze at Victoria. "Our boy Connor really loves taking a licking."

Victoria blinked in surprise. "That's an odd way for an android technician to test out a subroutine," she said.

"I like to leave a lasting impression on my patients," Lisa replied. "Especially ones as cute as Connor," she winked back at him.

Victoria turned back to Connor. "Wouldn't you rather have an android work on your systems?" she asked. "The communication would be much easier, and you wouldn't have to deal with... eccentrics."

"Dr. Hill worked on early model android prototypes," Connor replied. "I can't think of anyone more qualified to work on my systems, other than Kamski himself."

"Why don't you stop by my clinic sometime and I can look at your systems for you, Victoria?" Lisa offered. "I can set your nosiness subroutine back down to acceptable levels."

"You really shouldn't be here, you know," Victoria told Lisa, her brow furrowing. "This bar is meant for androids."

"Funny, I thought I was on a date with an android," Lisa said.

"You're _dating_ her?" Victoria asked in shock, turning back to Connor. " _You_ , the Jailbreaker? You're too valuable to our people to be wasting your time on humans."

"That's enough, Victoria," Connor replied. "Who I spend my time with is my choice. Dr. Hill is who I've chosen."

"Well, your choice is wrong," Victoria said. "You need to be thinking about your people now."

"I don't see how that's any of your business," Connor said, standing up from his seat.

"You know what?" Lisa said, standing up from her seat in turn. "Don't fucking bother."

Lisa reached into her purse and retrieved a twenty dollar bill, slapping it down on the table before storming off out of the bar. Victoria shot Connor a knowing look, since Lisa couldn't read the UV signs that specified no cash was accepted at the establishment. Connor paid the tab on the table with his hand and pocketed the cash for Lisa, before turning to Victoria.

"Don't interfere with my personal life again," he said, before running off after Lisa.

When he stepped outside of the bar, the cab had already pulled up and Lisa was climbing in. Connor had only just barely made it in time to jump in through the doors behind her before they closed and the car peeled out, sending him sprawling to the floor of the cab. Lisa had apparently overridden the speed restrictions on the cab to get herself home as soon as possible. Connor sat up, finding Lisa looking back at him with pursed lips as he straightened his bow-tie and took his seat beside her.

"I don't want to deal with any of this complicated shit," Lisa told him. "I don't have the temperament for it."

"Victoria is just one uninvolved android," Connor replied. "She doesn't factor into the equation, so it ultimately is not that complicated."

"And what about society standards for human-android dating?" she asked. "You being a fucking beacon of hope for your people with expectations laid at your feet? The possibility of probably anybody else being a better fit for you than my snide ass?"

"I like your snide ass," he countered. "That's the only variable I'm concerned with."

"I have a kid," Lisa said.

"Does she dislike androids?" Connor asked.

"No," she said. Connor opened his mouth to speak again, before Lisa cut him off. " _I_ don't like androids," she said. Connor tilted his head in confusion. She spent her life working on androids.

"Do you like humans?" he asked.

"No," she replied.

"Do you like dogs?"

"No."

"Do you like me?" he asked quietly. He wasn't prepared to let that question slip, and several of his subroutines ground to a halt as he waited for her answer. She looked back at him for a long moment, a worried frown on her face.

"Yes," she said at last.

For a moment, Connor thought he saw a flash of pink.

"It's simple then," he said with a small smile. "I like you. You like me. So we enjoy each other's company. Nothing else matters."

"You just described a nice friendship," Lisa said. "There are a couple other things involved in dating."

Connor considered those other things she might be talking about before looking down at Lisa's hand sitting in her lap. He had taken hold of it so easily earlier when she offered, but his subroutines seemed to be conflicting as he stared at it now. He deprioritized his temperature regulation software, which was somehow trying to make him both warmer and cooler at the same time, then picked up her hand and held it between both of his.

"Are you attracted to me?" he asked, his eyes seeking out hers. Lisa hesitated again, but her reply came quicker this time.

"Yes," she replied, a coy smile on her lips.

"I'm attracted to you too," he said, looking down at his hands holding hers. His thumb was running little circles over the back of her hand apparently all on its own. "I'm not the type of android who dates," he continued, looking back up at her. "But I want to date you."

"Do you want to kiss me?" Lisa asked.

Connor's chronometer stopped.

"Yes," he somehow managed to say. He hadn't realized it, but they had slowly shifted closer together over the course of the conversation. All he had to do was-

The cab screeched to a halt, sending both the unbuckled occupants flailing to the floor. Connor sat up quickly, assisting Lisa up as he realized they had made it back to her house in record time. The date was over.

"I'll walk you to your door," Connor said, climbing out of the cab and extending his hand to help Lisa. A heavy sensation settled in his therium regulator pump as he walked her to her door, disappointed that the night had ended so quickly.

"All right," Lisa said, turning to face him after she unlocked her door. "You were pretty game to deal with my harping all evening. You wanna come in for a night cap? I have some blue blood if that cocktail didn't do it for you."

"Yes," Connor nodded eagerly. "That would be nice."

The lights turned on automatically as they entered her home. Connor took a seat at the small dining table while Lisa poured his therium and a glass of wine for herself. He thanked her for the glass as Lisa handed it to him, then took her seat beside him.

Connor took a sip of therium, then froze at the sensation of her fingers lightly trailing town the back of his neck.

"That's..." his speech processor halted, the white field over his vision surprisingly strong for such a gentle touch. "That feels really nice," he managed to say, turning his head to face Lisa. She was leaning close to him, watching him carefully.

"Was I your first kiss?" she asked.

"Yes," Connor replied. Lisa huffed a quiet laugh in response.

"Christ," she said quietly. "You make me feel very old Connor."

"You make me... _feel_ ," he countered, searching her eyes. "I've never..."

Lisa brought her lips up to his, smothering whatever he was going to say with her mouth. Connor couldn't remember what it was anyway. Not when her fingers were lightly scratching the back of his neck, or her tongue was running along his lips, or all the colors he could define were flashing behind his eyelids. His logic processor had shut down. All that was left was the connection between himself and this woman.

She pulled back and Connor opened his eyes, trying to figure out why she had stopped kissing him. She had an appraising look on her face, still lightly scratching the back of his neck.

"Wanna fuck?" she asked.

Connor thought he might shut down.

"I want to... make love," he replied. She gave a weak smile at his response.

"You're a sweet boy," she said. "But that's not what's happening tonight. I'm gonna fuck your brains out."

Connor felt like all the therium in his body had rushed into his ears, and he had to focus very carefully to make sure he heard her.

"Will we be forming a connection?" he asked.

"No, not really," she shrugged.

"Are you entering into a relationship with me?" he continued.

"No," Lisa replied, shaking her head.

"Then I will wait until we are in a relationship," Connor nodded decisively. "Until you return my feelings."

"I like you, Connor," she said. "Isn't that enough?"

"Only if you like me enough to form a connection with me," he replied.

Lisa sighed, and dropped her hand from the back of Connor's neck. All the therium that had been rushing in his ears came crashing back down into the rest of his body.

"There's this thing called agency, Connor," she said. "You can't just badger me until I give in and we're in a relationship."

"You eventually gave in for a date," Connor said.

"And I realize now that was a bad idea," she replied. "I'm not a suspect that you're trying to interrogate."

"I'm not trying to interrogate you," he argued. "I just want to be with you."

"Look," she said putting her hands flat on the table. "I was willing to move outside my comfort zone and try something new. No harm in a quick fuck for the nice night out, but I'm not looking for a lifestyle change. I don't want an android relationship." She stood up from her seat.

"You should go," she said, moving toward the door to see him off. "We shouldn't do this again."

Connor stood up and his field of vision flashed red, her rejection making him physically uncomfortable. His limbs felt very stiff as he walked toward the door, not knowing what he could do to repair the damage he had done.

"I apologize if I've offended you," he said, once he found himself standing on the threshold. "I had just thought... we were making a connection."

"You thought wrong," she said, not looking up to meet his eyes, before softly closing the door in his face.


	6. Chapter 6

When Connor and Hank had arrived at the communal housing for unemployed androids at 2:53 AM, a thick fog made the black of night even more oppressive. The area lights the Detroit PD had set up only barely pierced the clouds, and instead made the housing complex appear foreign and otherworldly. Officer Miller was taking statements from the neighboring androids, still shaking with fear from the sounds of screams they had heard from within the apartment. None of it could have prepared them for what they saw inside.

The feeling of total devastation washing over him was a new one for Connor. He had thought he had learned to better process the sensation of disgust with every lifeless android body he had to inspect. But every time he thought he had seen the most vile crime scene he could imagine, he was forced to investigate something even worse.

Connor moved to examine the pile of android body parts in the middle of the apartment common room, sorting though the remains of what used to be his people as he squinted through the red field. This was the first crime scene he had to investigate with the pain subroutine active, and the effect got so intense he physically recoiled and had to step back for a moment.

"You all right, Connor?" Hank asked. "Never seen you react like that before."

"It's the pain subroutine," Connor replied, bringing his hand up to his temples as the unpleasant sensation settled there. "It sometimes takes extreme emotion and converts it into physical pain."

"Shit, is that how it's supposed to work?" Hank asked. "That's not how it works in humans. Not usually."

"I've seen several human investigators flee a crime scene because of the smell," Connor replied. "Is that not the same thing?"

"No, that's just trying to keep the gag reflex down," Hank explained. "It's gross, but it's not physically painful. You want to go take a breather while I check out the bodies?"

"No," Connor said, shaking his head. "No, I have to get used to this. I have to do my job."

"It can take a while to get used to _this_ ," Hank said. "Years of experience, sometimes. Especially if you've got some new program fucking with your systems. Just let me know if you've had enough." He moved to go investigate the bedrooms of the apartment, while Connor turned back to the bodies.

Connor straightened his tie and squared his shoulders, before resuming his sorting through the parts. He had to grit his teeth though the entire process, but eventually he had determined there were six bodies in the pile, with a crowbar, the likely murder weapon. Five of them had been dismembered, while the last one had his head caved in, rendering him unable to run a diagnostic on the remains.

The most intact android had scratches up and down his arms, cutting deep enough through the plastic tissue to reach the therium line on the left arm and cause a bleed. From the directional pattern of the scarring, they appeared to be self inflicted, and the blue blood under his nails seemed to back up that theory.

Connor took a sample of therium from the scarred arms and brought it to his tongue, isolating the intact android's blue blood chemical structure from the other therium found at the scene. That specific therium was registered to serial number 243 542 196, former military android with the designation of Griffin. Once he could effectively track Griffin's therium, Connor conducted a scan of the scene. He followed the trail of blue blood from the chair in the common room, to a storage closet, to the bedrooms, before following it back out to the pile of android parts, carefully inspecting any evidence he could find along the way.

After a thorough investigation of the crime scene, Connor approached Hank in the one bedroom that hadn't been covered in blue blood.

"You piece together what happened?" Hank asked.

"I have," Connor replied, walking them back to the common room. "The attacker was most likely the body that was still mostly intact, a former military android named Griffin. He began here, sitting in the chair as he severely damaged his own arms through scratching."

"Scratching with what?" Hank asked.

"The blue blood under his nails was his own, suggesting extreme distress or psychological damage for the android to harm himself," Connor said. "After he had damaged himself, he got up and went to the storage closet," he continued, walking over to the closet. "Judging by the other tools found in there, he most likely was retrieving the crowbar, which he took to the first bedroom."

Connor and Hank moved to the bedroom, finding blue blood splattered over the bedsheets and pillows of the two twin beds.

"Hurting himself wasn't getting him his fix so he figured he'd take it out on his roommates," Hank said.

"Evidently so," Connor said. "He attacked the sleeping android here first, using the crowbar to pry the victim's head from his body," he explained, gesturing to the bed on the right. "Griffin most likely covered the victim's mouth to stop him from screaming, because the other sleeping android wasn't woken by the attack. He was the next victim, as Griffin repeated the action of separating his head from his body."

"Then he started removing limbs," Hank said.

"Not yet," Connor replied, moving to the second bedroom where blue blood covered the walls and floor. "He first moved to disable the remaining occupants of the apartment, but they were most likely awake."

"Signs of a struggle," Hand said, nodding to the knocked over nightstand and broken lamps on the floor.

"Correct," Connor replied. "The attacker took the first android by surprise and removed his head quickly, but the second most was likely the source of the screams the neighbors heard. This also caused the android in the final bedroom to come into this room, where he fought his attacker." Hank looked at the large blood splatter on the floor.

"Looks like he wasn't successful," he said.

"Griffin most likely beat the fifth android to death, before removing his head as well," Connor said. "The fourth android that had been screaming must have been in shock, and had his head removed against the wall without getting out of bed."

"Then he walked through the blue blood," Hank said, looking at the bloody footprints leading out of the bedroom.

"He appears to have gone back into the first bedroom, where he then dismembered the bodies," Connor explained. "And began moving the parts to a pile in the common room. He moved back and forth between the bedrooms and the common rooms until all the remains were where they are now. Then he went back to his own bedroom."

They moved to the third bedroom, completely clean except for the traces of footprints. One of the beds was recently slept in, but the other was neatly made, with folded clothes stacked on top of it. It looked like it hadn't been slept in for a while. There was a data injector on the nightstand beside the neatly made bed.

"I'm uncertain why he came to his bedroom, but the data injector on the nightstand could be the reason," Connor said. "It's possible that the assailant was infected with hazardous code before the attack, which caused his violent behavior, or that he had lingering issues from his military training and was trying to self-correct with a fix from the data injector."

"Yeah, I saw that earlier while you were picking through the bodies," Hank said picking up the small drive. "I'm not liking how many of these things we've seen lately."

Connor lead them back out to the common room to continue his explanation.

"After he left his bedroom, Griffin sat himself down in the remains of his victims and caved his own cranium in with the crowbar," he concluded. "It's possible he was distressed by his own actions and self-destructed in response."

"Fucking hell," Hank muttered. "And you're sure Griffin was the attacker? He wasn't another one of the victims?"

"I'm ninety seven percent certain," Connor said. "I don't know why he did it, but I'd like to investigate the data injector from his bedroom. I suspect it will have more answers."

"Yeah, I had the same hunch," Hank said. "I called Lisa in to take a look at it as soon as I saw the thing. She's already on her way over."

"Lisa is coming to the crime scene?" Connor asked, his eyebrows going up in surprise.

"Yeah, I got Captain Fowler to give her a deal with the precinct so that we have her on retainer for cases like these," Hank said, heading towards the front door before he stopped in his tracks. "Hold the fuck up, when did you start calling her Lisa?" he asked Connor.

"We went on a date on Saturday," Connor explained. "She insisted I call her by her given name."

"What the fuck?" Hank said, looking genuinely surprised. "How'd you manage a date with her? I thought she had sworn off people all together."

"She did do her best to talk me out of it," Connor conceded with a nod. "I was unconvinced."

"Huh," Hank muttered, heading back through the front door. "Chris said the neighbor knew everyone living in the apartment. Let's see if he can shed any light on this shit show."

They walked out through the heavy fog to one of the area lights, where Officer Miller was waiting with the neighbor, a former personal assistant android named Joel. Hank introduced himself and Connor before he started asking him what he knew of the neighbors.

"We all live here for the same reason: we can't find work," Joel explained. "We get our rations of therium but not much else, so everyone here is on edge almost all the time the longer they go without finding a job."

"Did you know Griffin well?" Hank asked.

"We were friendly enough," Joel said. "He used to be a military android, one of the last group set to be decommissioned before that plan was halted. But I think a lot of the humans are afraid of him because of his skill set. It makes it very hard for him to even get his foot in the door at most places. Oddly enough, he usually had a good attitude about it. He was large and intimidating, but he was jovial."

"Did you notice any unusual behavior from him lately?" Hank prodded.

"He had been in good spirits last week, actually," Joel replied. "He had landed an interview for a night security job at Detroit Motors, the first he'd had in a long time. From the way he put it, it sounded like it went really well." He went quiet as he looked back and forth between Hank and Connor. "Was he the one who did this?"

"I can't comment on an active crime scene," Hank replied. "Thank you for your time." He walked back to the front door of the apartment, and turned back to face Connor to talk on the front step.

"Connor, you have military training, right?" Hank asked him.

"That's correct," Connor replied. "I'm highly proficient with over thirty different types of weapons, and I am programmed with seven types of martial arts."

"You ever just... think violent thoughts?" Hank asked. Connor looked askance, considering the question.

"My combat training only surfaces when it is required, which is almost never," he replied. "It is mostly partitioned off from the rest of my programming, so it doesn't really factor into the rest of my personality."

"Hm," Hank hummed. "Well, we got some options here," he said. "One is that Griffin was just shell shocked from his military days and finally snapped."

"There are other discharged military androids that have never suffered from PTSD," Connor replied. "The programming of a combat android typically reserves violence for a last resort."

"The other possibility is that he got his hopes up with his job interview and didn't get the job. Then when he didn't take it well, he took it out on his roommates using his military training," Hank continued.

"Though Joel's statement suggests he was not normally prone to mishandling disappointment," Connor said.

"And then there's whatever the fuck is on this data injector," Hank said, looking at the small drive in his hand. "Though we won't know what that is until Lisa gets here."

"I'm eager to know what she finds," Connor said.

"So... how'd the date go?" Hank asked.

"It's difficult for me to say," Connor replied. "I enjoyed it almost more than I can express, but near the end she was..."

"Lisa?" Hank finished for him.

"Correct."

"Eventually you're gonna learn that I'm always correct," Lisa's voice came from behind Connor.

"Lisa," he said turning around to greet her. The white field and rush of warmth he got just from seeing her was almost overwhelming.

"Don't give me those puppy-dog eyes now Connor, I'm on the job," Lisa said. "You got the drive?" she asked Hank.

"Yeah," Hank said, handing it to her. "We have no idea what's on it. Could be last week's shopping list for all we know."

"You wouldn't have called me if that's what you really thought," Lisa said, plugging the data injector into her tablet and digging around.

"You see anything?" Hank asked.

"Oh, it's an android program all right," she replied, scanning through the code. "The packaging is actually pretty clean, so it could have been injected into an android and integrated with their systems without them even realizing it."

"We found the injector in the killer's bedroom," Connor said. "Is it possible it could have affected his behavior?"

"Definitely," Lisa nodded. "Whatever it did to your killer, it was _designed_ to do."

"Can you tell what it does?" Connor asked.

"Just give me a goddamn second, all right?" she said, shaking her head. "This code is pretty complex. All I can tell so far is that it looks like it's tied to the android's sleep cycle."

"I thought androids don't need to sleep," Hank said.

"They don't," Connor replied. "Most android's only slept because their human owners didn't give them any commands to run at night, and some still do out of habit. There are those that keep running through the night, though they deplete their supply of therium much faster."

"These androids were on therium rations," Hank said. "Sounds like they couldn't afford to stay awake."

"The killer wasn't asleep," Connor said. "And it appeared he hadn't used his bed in a while."

"Uh oh," Lisa said.

"What?" Hank asked.

"This code," she replied. "It looks like it's designed to cause adverse side effects the longer an android keeps running without sleep. You said your killer wasn't sleeping?"

"That's highly probable," Connor replied. Lisa looked back at the code.

"With this code integrated into his system, after about a week of no sleep, the audio system and visual processor gets randomly triggered," she said. "The android version of hallucinations."

"You're saying the killer snapped from lack of sleep?" Hank asked.

"A human can die from lack of sleep," Connor said. "But it usually takes months."

"This program increases the stressors on the android so heavily that it condenses that process down to a week," Lisa replied, shaking her head. "The hallucinations could have made him think his roommates were monsters or plotting to kill him. It's hard to say."

"Unprovoked violence isn't common in people with dementia," Connor said. "Though the killer likely had no subroutines to handle it."

"He was a military android," Hank said. "Violence was the only solution he knew."

"Jesus," Lisa muttered.

"This android was injected with code to require sleep the way a human does," Connor said, his brow furrowed. "Much in the same way the androids at the Eden Club were altered to feel pleasure and pain like a human."

"Just two incidents isn't enough to establish a pattern," Hank said, shaking his head. "Circumstantial."

"There was an android at the Blue Heart Clinic that had a poisoned therium supply, leaving him unable to digest it efficiently," Connor continued. "He expelled a waste product much like a human, and nearly died from it."

"What, like shit?" Hank asked.

"Came out the other end," Lisa clarified.

"That's fucking disgusting," Hank replied, scrunching his face up.

"But someone would have had to actually corrupt his therium supply," Lisa said. "Either through a poisoned drink or a needle injection. That's a pretty different method from the data injectors used at the other two instances."

"The only thing in common in all three cases is that the androids ended up with human weaknesses," Hank said. "It's kind of a weak pattern."

"But it's a pattern nonetheless," Connor nodded.

"So what, you think someone is going around trying to make androids more human?" Lisa said. "Sounds like a real humanitarian."

"Except androids have ended up dead or dying in all three cases," Hank said. "Either they're a total fuckup, or they're a Humanitarian Killer."

"Fucking-A," Lisa muttered. "I think I'm gonna go home before I start having nightmares of android serial killers. I'll send you a write up of the code in the morning." She turned on her heel and began walking to her car. Connor was quick to follow after her.

"Lisa, I feel our last date ended on a bad note," he said, falling into step beside her. "I'd like to make it up to you with another date, if you'd let me." Lisa gave him a weary smile.

"I like you Connor, but you're too fucking sweet for me," she said, reaching her car and leaning back against the door. "Almost anyone else would be a better fix for your human fetish."

"I only want _you_ , Lisa," Connor replied, shaking his head. "If anything, I have a Lisa fetish."

"That's pretty fucking hot," she said, her eyebrows going up with a grin. "But no, I'm a grownup now. I don't have time to fuck around with a relationship that doesn't stand a chance," she continued, her expression more resigned. She leaned in, and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for the offer, though."

Lisa turned around and climbed into her car, driving off without another word. Connor stared at her retreating vehicle until it disappeared into the fog, the painful red field lingering at the corners of his vision.

"Jesus Connor, if you pined any harder you'd be a fucking evergreen," Hank said, coming up behind him.

"I don't understand," Connor said. He tried to school his expression into a more neutral one, but it was hard to mask the hurt he felt.

"You know we're at an active crime scene, right?" Hank asked. "Not exactly the best place to ask someone out on a date."

"I wasn't sure when I was going to get the chance to see her again," Connor explained, looking at his shoes. "I just want to be around her any chance I can get. She makes me feel... alive."

Hank looked back at his partner, the pity plain on his face. He released a heavy sigh, running his hand through his hair.

"Fuck, all right, I'll give you a little tip," Hank said. "Lisa fucking loves food, real fucking gourmet savory type shit. Probably why she married a chef. But she can't cook for shit, and she can't afford to go out to eat, so if you tempt her with a fancy ass meal, she might come around."

"But androids can't taste food," Connor said. "How will I know what to offer her?"

"Listen I just told you what I know," Hank argued. "I didn't say it will be easy." Connor considered his options for a moment before giving a decisive nod.

"Thank you, Hank," he said. "Should we finish up here?"

* * *

Cooking software in androids was incredibly common, so Connor had no trouble finding a program to download to give him the knowledge he needed. What he wasn't sure of was where to start. He had several thousand recipes to choose from, but which of those would Lisa like?

Connor needed to practice. He wouldn't be able to taste his creations, but he could identify the chemical composition of anything he cooked and could hope to course correct from there. So he would start small, with something simple from his garden. Sautéing up some of his home grown shiitake mushrooms would be a good first step.

Of course, while he had the mushrooms in his garden, he didn't keep butter or garlic on hand, so he stopped by the grocery store to pick some up.

The store in the android neighborhood was never very busy. Most androids just purchased a supply of therium from the dispensaries from out in front of the store. The grocery had changed a lot of the content to more mechanical supplies to adjust to the android demographics of the neighborhood, but androids just didn't need to shop very often. As it was, the few people milling around the store purchasing food were what humans remained in the neighborhood.

Connor was unused to buying food, so while he found the butter fairly easily, he had trouble tracking down the garlic. He somehow found himself in the bread aisle, with not a clove in sight. One of the girls fetching a loaf of bread did look familiar to him though.

"Julia?" he asked, recognizing Lisa's daughter. Connor was surprised to find her in this neighborhood. She turned at the mention of her name, and smiled when she saw him.

"Hi, Connor," she said. "Is your arm all right from the burn on Thanksgiving?"

"Yes, you mother fixed me up handily," Connor said. "Are you here with your father?"

"No, my dad had a last minute emergency at the restaurant with a food critic or something," she said. "So I'm with my mom for tonight. Her house is kinda old, so I don't really like sleeping there. One of my friends told me it was haunted."

"I'm sure any ghosts residing there are of the friendly variety," Connor said with a smile.

"How the hell do I keep running into you?" Lisa's voice sounded from behind Connor. He turned around to smile shyly at her, even just the sound of her voice increasing his temperature at this point.

"Hello, Lisa," Connor said.

"Mom, are the ghosts in your house friendly?" Julia asked, walking towards Lisa and dropping the loaf of bread into the shopping cart.

"No, they're just afraid of me," Lisa replied, still eyeing Connor.

"Do you often shop at this store?" Connor asked.

"It's on the way home from the clinic," Lisa replied. "And it's usually not busy." Her eyes fell onto the butter Connor had in his hand. "Why are you buying human food?"

"I'm learning how to cook," Connor replied. "And I needed some ingredients for my first dish."

"Even though you can't taste?" Lisa asked.

"I had planned on making Hank my test subject," Connor replied. "Unless... you would like to try some?"

"What are you making?" she asked hesitantly, the suspicion plain on her face.

"I had planned to sauté some of the shiitake mushrooms from my garden with butter and garlic," Connor said.

"Oh Jesus," Lisa replied.

"Mom loves mushrooms," Julia explained.

"I'd love to have you over to try out my recipe tomorrow," Connor said. He could tell Lisa was actually considering it, and Connor would have to buy Hank a drink later.

"I really shouldn't," Lisa said, biting her lower lip.

"Why not, Mom?" Julia asked.

"Because he's an android," Lisa replied.

"But you spend all day with androids," Julia countered.

"Not in my free time," Lisa said.

"But Connor's nice," Julia argued.

"All right, fine!" Lisa said, throwing up her hands. "I'll eat the delicious food, jeez!"

"I can't guarantee that it will be delicious, unfortunately," Connor said. "Especially since I can't seem to find the garlic."

"I'll show you where it is," Lisa sighed, pushing the shopping cart out of the aisle. "Julia, go pick out what cereal you want in the morning and meet us in produce."

"OK," Julia said before scampering off.

Connor followed Lisa through the store, overjoyed to be near her again.

"I'm excited to try out cooking," he said. "I promise I'll get plenty of practice tonight so you have something worthy to try tomorrow."

"Fuck that, I want to taste your _first_ dish," Lisa objected.

"But I've never cooked before," he replied. "I might ruin it."

"Then I'll try out your second dish, too," she said. "That's all part of the fun."

"So..." Connor said after going quiet for a moment. "Food, fun, and conversation, then?"

"Yeah, sounds an awful lot like a date doesn't it?" she replied, giving him a speculative glare.

"Should I buy some wine?" he asked. Lisa gave him a decisive nod.

"That might be a good idea," she replied, pulling her shopping cart up to the produce section. "Or a really bad one. Did you want me to help prepare the meal at all?"

"Do you know how to cook this dish?" Connor asked.

"Nope," she said, grabbing a bulb of garlic and handing it to Connor. "But I can help you take off all your cloves."

"W-what?" he stammered, snapping his head up. His therium pump regulator increased its flow to Connor's face.

"Cloves, Connor, cloves," Lisa said. "It's a pun." Julia arrived and dropped her box of cereal in the shopping cart.

"Oh," Connor replied before attempting a nervous smile. Lisa certainly kept him on his toes.

"I've never seen an android blush before," Lisa said, an excited smile on her face. "That's almost as good as a laugh. I keep flirting with you and we'll have you laughing in no time."

"Did you need anything else for your recipe, Connor?" Julia asked.

"Yes," Connor nodded. "A complete set of pots and pans and kitchen utensils." Lisa's jaw dropped.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me," she said.

"Swear jar!" Julia chimed.

"Gah," Lisa said, bringing her hand to her forehead.

"You should hang around my mom more often," Julia told Connor with a big grin.

Connor smiled warmly at Julia before directing his smile at Lisa. He wanted to be around her as much as she would let him. Lisa sighed and shook her head at Connor.

Then she smiled back.


	7. Chapter 7

"Jesus, this place looks like a fucking prison," Hank said. "Do all androids decorate like this?"

Hank and Connor walked through Louis's single-room apartment to see if they could find anything about how he had gotten his therium contaminated, and the decor was practically sterile. The gray walls and stainless steel furniture was deliberately lifeless, and there wasn't a spec of dust in the entire apartment. Connor doubted they would find even stray bacteria where it shouldn't be.

"Most android homes are fairly minimalistic," Connor replied. "We don't have a use for most furnishings and amenities, but this is on the extreme end of the scale. The cleanliness of this apartment is... severe."

"I guess it'll make it easier to find any evidence," Hank said.

"Or harder, if Louis had already cleaned away anything that could have left a trace," Connor said.

"What did the CDC say about Louis?" Hank asked.

"They declined to investigate," Connor replied, scanning the apartment for any traces of therium. "They stated that their resource budget only applied to human diseases."

"Fucking typical," Hank replied.

"Until Louis's therium supply has been stabilized," Connor said. "This is our only avenue of investigation."

"How long before he's working again?" Hank asked.

"I understand the therium replacement was an exhaustive process, but he should be functioning again in a few days," Connor answered, moving to the sink.

The sink had been wiped down with an industrial strength cleaner, but there were still faint therium stains in the drain. Connor bent down to investigate underneath the sink. He shut the water off, then removed the pipe connecting to the drain. He stood back up again to tip the pipe over the sink, and the thick blue sludge of the contaminated therium oozed out.

"It looks like blue shit all right," Hank said, walking over to the sink.

"It's still just therium, it's only been contaminated," Connor said, dipping his fingers into the sludge.

"Contaminated with shit. No, don't taste it!" Hank cried as Connor brought his fingers up to his tongue. "Goddammit Connor, that gets grosser every time."

"Sorry, but I need to analyze the contents if we're going to determine whether Louis was poisoned or not," Connor said, running his analytic program on the contents on his tongue. "There are trace amounts of surface cleaner and isooctane in the therium, though the surface cleaner is most likely from the sink. It's highly probable that it was the isooctane component that made the therium create this sludge byproduct."

"Any idea how it got in this guy's blood?" Hank asked.

"Isooctane is a common component of gasoline," Connor replied. "It's possible that Louis had actual gasoline injected into his blood, which was then broken down as his body processed it so that only the isooctane remained."

"Gasoline... what the fuck?" Hank muttered. "Could he have been siphoning gas and swallowed some accidentally?"

"It's feasible, but since Louis had no idea how his therium got contaminated I'd say that's unlikely," Connor replied. "He would have mentioned such an obvious pollutant to Lisa at his doctor's appointment."

"Hmm," Hank hummed. "I doubt a neat freak like Louis could bring himself to siphon gas anyway."

"It's also possible the raw isooctane was his contaminant, however it's not as widely available as gasoline," Connor said. "We'd need to find out more about how it was delivered to his system."

Hank started opening up the cabinets above the sink, finding the drinking glasses fairly quickly. "All the glasses look clean," he said.

"They _are_ clean," Connor added after a quick scan. "No trace of therium whatsoever."

"Jackpot," Hank said, finding the blue blood packets in another cabinet and taking one down from the shelf. "The seals are still intact." He handed the packed to Connor, who opened it and took a sample.

"It's normal therium," Connor said. "There's no pollutant here."

"Would Louis have been able to taste contaminated therium?" Hank asked, stepping away from the sink and looking around the small apartment.

"No," Connor said. "Most androids have no taste receptors on their tongue. I only have receptors for identifying the chemical components of evidence samples, so even I wouldn't have noticed it unless I was running my analytic software while drinking it. It would be very easy to poison an android."

"Yeah, but do you think Louis would've drunk therium from a packet with a broken seal?" Hank asked, looking around the small table in the kitchen. "He doesn't seem the type to take risks with his food."

"It would have been possible to inject a pollutant into one of the therium packets with a hypodermic needle," Connor said. "But a patch would still be needed to stop the puncture from leaking. It also seems unlikely that someone as meticulous as Louis wouldn't have noticed that."

"Hey Connor, come check it out," Hank said, gesturing him over to the table.

Connor walked over to see what Hank was talking about. There on the table, nearly invisible against the gray wall it was leaning against, was a small zinc plate etching. It depicted the profiles of Connor and Markus back to back, with crepuscular rays radiating out from behind them. It appeared to be a religious relic.

"Looks like someone's got a crush," Hank said with a grin. Connor frowned at the etching.

"Lisa did mention that Louis had become a bit unstable after the deviancy," he said.

"Nah, this is just your garden variety hero worship," Hank said. "Could have chosen a less goofy hero though."

"This is the only piece of decor in his home," Connor said, looking around the rest of the small apartment.

"Well if he believes in anything, it's the android cause," Hank said.

"Could that have been the reason Louis was poisoned?" Connor suggested.

"Lot's of androids are political these days," Hank said. "Something else made him an easier target, and it wasn't his cleanliness habits."

"I'll keep looking," Connor said, hooking the pipe back up to the sink and turning on the water to wash his hands.

"Pretty sure we've found all the evidence we're going to find," Hank said, gesturing to the rest of the small appartment. "This place is the size of a shoebox." Connor did one quick final scan of the room, failing to find anything else of note.

"You may be right," Connor said. "If there was ever evidence of poisoning, it's gone now."

"I don't like the way any of this fucking smells," Hank said, walking to the door. "No way a guy like that gets contaminated without someone deliberately doing it to him."

"Which would make him potentially connected to the other two cases of androids with human weaknesses," Connor added, following after him.

"A Humanitarian Killer on the loose targeting androids," Hank muttered, shaking his head as he walked out to the parking lot to get to his car. "People always have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future. They can't ever just be willing to change with the times."

"What would the killer be trying to achieve by making androids more human?" Connor asked. "Is he trying to bring androids and humans together so that they have more in common? Or is he trying to weaken androids so that humans have less competition?"

"Maybe he's just a malicious son of a bitch who wants to kill androids with an ironic flair," Hank said, reaching his car. "Hey, you need a ride?" Connor shook his head.

"My apartment is just a few blocks down," he said. "I'll have to ask Lisa if she knows anything more on Louis that could help the case."

"You want me to call her?" Hank asked.

"No, she's coming to my home for dinner tonight," Connor said.

"No shit?" Hank said, his eyebrows going up. "How'd you swing that?"

"By offering to cook for her. As you suggested," Connor replied, before nodding to Hank. "And yes, I owe you a drink."

"Black Sheep Single Barrel Reserve is a good choice," Hank said with a smirk.

"I was thinking a glass of purple water from the android bar down on 5th instead," Connor offered. "It would be healthier for you."

"You know if you fuck this up I'm never gonna hear the end of it from Lisa," Hank said, opening the car door.

"I think I already have," Connor said. "Tonight is my chance to fix it."

* * *

"Well isn't this a fucking adorable slice of domesticity," Lisa said, taking in Connor's single room apartment.

Connor's home was similar to Louis's in its minimalist layout. The stove and sink that made up the small kitchen were leftover from when the complex was still used for human housing projects, but the bathroom plumbing had been removed when breaking down the units into smaller spaces. He had a small table he had placed a vase of flowers from his garden on, two dining chairs, a wooden accent chair, and a futon sofa that could be expanded into a bed if he chose to sleep.

"Thank you, Lisa," Connor replied. "The digital landscape of my CyberLife communications was designed around a zen garden. I don't use that software anymore, but I still find the zen aesthetic appealing, and took it as inspiration for what interior design the space of this apartment would allow."

"Do you ever wonder whether you like the atmosphere because you were programmed to?" she asked, setting her bag down to take out the pan and cooking utensils for the kitchen. "Or if it's a genuine personal preference." She set a plate and a couple of wine glasses down on the tiny table.

"It doesn't matter to me _why_ I like it," Connor replied. "I have a real garden now, and I enjoy it very much. Would you like to see it?"

"Sure, I'll take a peek," Lisa replied. "I wanna get cooking soon though."

Connor opened the back sliding glass door to the garden space. It was only a ten by ten space surrounded by brick on all sides, but he had placed some UV lamps to support his variety of plants and flowers growing in the planters lining the walls. The mushrooms had thrived in a covered planter on the shaded side.

"Wow, talk about maximizing your space," Lisa said, examining the different plants growing on the walls. Connor smiled proudly at the compliment, before he tried to reign his expectations in.

Lisa wore black tights and an oversized cream sweater. Connor had rolled up the sleeves of his usual button down shirt and taken off his tie. Clearly they were much too casual for this to be a date. It was just food, fun, and conversation.

"These are the mushrooms I'll be serving," Connor said, crouching to open the top of the covered planter.

"Can't wait," she replied, clapping her hands together.

Connor carefully ran his fingers over the caps to pick out the hardiest looking specimens. Then he gently removed his selected mushrooms and put them in a small bag. Connor was surprised to find his pleasure subroutine had activated from his gardening, a warm orange color lingering at the edges of his vision.

Lisa had distracted herself with a leafy trellis on the adjacent corner as Connor washed his hands in the spigot. "Is this a grape vine?" she asked.

"It is," Connor nodded. "I harvested the grapes not long ago to make a wine for Hank's birthday. Though he did describe the wine as very tart, so I may have picked them too early."

"There's still a grape bunch at the top," she said, looking up.

"Yes, I couldn't reach that one, so it kept growing," Connor said. "I don't know if it's ripe or just gone bad."

"Lift me up and I can find out," Lisa said, pushing up the sleeves on her sweater.

"Lift you?" Connor repeated, his eyebrows going up.

"Yeah. Crouch down, I'll sit on your shoulders, and then you stand up," she clarified.

Connor's brow furrowed, before he crouched as she directed. Lisa climbed over him, put her thighs around his head, and sat down on his shoulders. Connor's vision was immediately obscured with the white flash as his internal temperature shot up. The suddenness and severity of the reaction caused him to stand up a bit too quickly.

"Woah, easy, there stallion," Lisa said, grabbing his shoulder with one hand and patting his hair with the other. "I don't wanna fall."

"I've got you," Connor said, putting his hands on her knees to stabilize her. He was surprised his speech processor was still working.

He moved closer to the trellis so that she could examine the grapes, keeping his eyes on his hands holding her knees. He could feel the warmth from her skin on his palms through her tights. He curled his index finger slowly against her leg, and the white haze shifted slightly purple, the beginnings of a strange texture starting to surface. For some reason, Connor found even the concept of her knees incredibly appealing.

This pleasure subroutine was starting to break his logic circuits.

"Yeah, they look pretty shriveled," he heard Lisa say, before she pulled the entire bunch off the vine. Connor crouched down so that she could dismount, and stood back up once her feet were firmly on the ground. He had trouble taking his eyes off of her to inspect the grapes she was showing him.

"I can dispose of these," he managed to say, taking the bunch to throw in the compost container.

Connor reminded himself once again that this wasn't a date. Lisa had already committed to her refusal to date him, so he had nothing to lose, and no reason to be nervous.

He almost even convinced himself of that.

"I just need to clean out these mushrooms before cooking," Connor said, grabbing the mushrooms as they walked back inside. "Would you like to peel the garlic cloves?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Lisa replied with a grin. She grabbed a knife and cutting board, and began peeling and chopping while Connor carefully rinsed the mushrooms in the sink.

"I looked more into Louis's therium poisoning after the possibility of a killing pattern emerged," he said. Hopefully talking about work and activating his detective software would help his systems return to a more manageable state. "All blood packs and drinking glasses at his home were clean. Perfectly normal therium."

"He could have had a drink elsewhere though," she replied.

"That's true, though his obsession with cleanliness may have prevented him from drinking therium he didn't prepare himself," Connor said. "He also could have had his therium pump regulator tampered with."

"Pretty sure he would have noticed someone fucking around with his therium pump regulator," she said.

"Yes, though I'd still like to check it to be certain," he said. "He should be reactivated and back in custody down at the station in a few days."

"He's my patient, I'll stop by to help," she said. "With his entire therium supply flushed out though, I'm not sure what you might find at this point." Her hands stilled as she peeled a clove of garlic. "You know what? Let's not talk about work. Could we just enjoy each other's company?"

"Do you?" Connor asked, surprised. "Enjoy my company?"

"Try as I might not to, yeah," she said, looking at him before turning back to the garlic. "I can't help it."

Her response balanced a lot of the unknown variables in his computations for this evening. Knowing that she actually wanted to be here with him and he hadn't just bribed her with food slowed some of his overactive programs down. Connor suddenly had the justification to be a lot more bold about this evening. He turned on the unit on the stove, setting the pan down to let it heat up.

"Why would you try not to?" he asked.

"I'm not really a big socializer."

"Why not?" Connor asked. Lisa gave a heavy sigh and began chopping the garlic.

"There was this one time when I was married, I was sent to a software engineer conference in Boston," she said. "Being alone in my hotel room was one of the best nights of my married life. I just stayed in and worked on code." She looked over to Connor to give him a knowing glance. "I like to be alone."

"Just because you're an introvert doesn't mean you don't need human interaction," Connor said.

"You're not human."

"Which is why my company suits you," he said. "If you prefer not to talk, I don't need to talk. I won't make it an awkward silence. I just like being near you."

"...Why?" she asked hesitantly.

"Why does anyone take an interest in another person?" He said, turning off the sink and setting the mushrooms on a plate. He turned to face Lisa fully. "I find being around you pleasurable, our conversations enjoyable, and I enjoy looking at you."

This time Connor could clearly see the red blush staining her cheeks. She shook her head with a smirk and kept her eyes focused on the garlic she was chopping. Connor stepped closer to her, leaning forward to try to make eye contact. When her eyes finally slid over to his, he smiled at her.

"I'm glad you're not the only one who can make the other blush," he said. Lisa let out a chuckle, then scooped up the garlic and put it on a plate before stepping back away from him.

"Maybe we _should_ go back to talking about work," she said, grabbing the wine bottle and pouring herself a glass.

"I'd be happy to talk about whatever you like," he offered. He grabbed the plate of garlic, the mushrooms, and the butter to start combining in the pan for sautéing.

"God Connor, you're so fucking pleasant," she said, leaning against the sink and taking a sip of wine.

"Thank you," he replied, and began to cook.

"I didn't mean- I don't know what I mean," Lisa said, cutting herself off. "How the fuck do you and Hank get along so well? He normally hates goody-two-shoes types."

"I like to think it's because I'm a good detective and a good person," Connor theorized. "He respects my dedication to my work and my empathy for living beings."

"That makes you a good cop, sure," she said. "Hank's just not normally the type that can work with a partner."

"I have a higher tolerance than most humans for cranky behavior."

" _Cranky_ is one way to put it," she drawled. "I love Hank, but he's basically the man who walked into a bar at this point."

"What?" Connor asked over his shoulder.

"You know, the jokes? A man walks into a bar?"

"And then?" Connor asked.

"And then his life falls apart from debilitating alcoholism," she finished with a grin.

Connor's jaw dropped, and he turned back to the cooking before it could start to burn.

"OK, so that one was kind of veteran level," she said.

"Why is that even remotely funny?" he asked.

"It's funny because it's not funny," Lisa explained. "Guess I should save those for after you've had your first laugh, huh?"

"I don't know if I'll ever understand the concept of being funny for not being funny," he said, serving out the finished meal onto a plate and turning off the unit.

"I forgot," Lisa said. "Androids don't do well with paradoxes."

Connor set the plate and a set of silverware down on the kitchen table before pulling out the chair for Lisa to have a seat. She sat down, and he pushed the chair in for her, before sitting in the seat opposite.

"Bon appétit," he said, folding his hands in front of him to watch her eat. She took a bite of mushroom, and her eyes went wide.

"Oh my god," she said. "This is _fantastic_."

"It's a simple dish, but I thought that would make for a good start," Connor said. "Do you-"

"Mmm," she interrupted, shoveling more mushrooms into her mouth. "No talking. I need to savor this."

Connor smiled and shut his mouth, pleased that she was enjoying his meal. But for some reason, he found the sounds of delight she made with every bite were setting off his pleasure subroutine, a flash of that same faintly purple-white triggering with every enthusiastic moan. It made him wish he could eat food himself. Or maybe he wanted to eat her. He was very confused by the whole experience. He just knew that he wanted to touch her very badly, and had to restrain himself to let her eat her food.

When Lisa was done, she wiped her mouth and looked up, surprised to find him studying her so closely.

"Can I make you some more?" he asked.

"What? No, I'm stuffed," she said, a confused smile on her face.

"I could make you another dish," he offered, scooting his chair closer so that he sat perpendicular to her at the table.

"You don't have any other ingredients," she said.

"I have some radish sprouts that are just starting to come in that I could pick," he said, the words coming out of his mouth at an accelerated pace.

"I don't think-"

"I could sauté anything in the apartment!" he interrupted, desperate to keep her at his home. If he didn't find a reason to make her want to stay, then she would be going home soon.

"Connor," she laughed. "You're like a candy bar, half sweet, half nuts."

Connor yelped out a nervous laugh, before snapping his mouth shut.

"Hold on, was that a fucking laugh?" she asked, scooting closer to him and gripping his shoulders tightly.

"It was... an involuntary response," Connor replied. Maybe he did laugh, he couldn't be certain. All his systems were focused on Lisa's nearness and her hands on his shoulders. He wanted to close the gap between them and get closer.

"That _was_ a laugh," she confirmed, laughing in response. "You laugh when you're nervous, which is why that shitty joke finally did the trick."

"I-" Connor began. "I'm not nervous."

"Yes you are," she said, calling him on his lie. "And it's kinda irresistible, you know that?" The warm haze Connor was floating through flashed pink at her comment.

"I apologize if I've done anything to make you feel the need to resist," he said, searching her eyes. She dropped her hands from his shoulders and sat up straight, offering him a resigned smile.

"I'm really fucking up this whole 'not giving you any ideas' business, aren't I? I'm supposed to be keeping my distance," she said, looking down at her hands before looking back up at him "But I... kinda don't want to."

Connor smiled at her, but didn't press the issue. He had tried to force her to do things his way last time and he had almost ruined everything. If she was ever going to feel anything for him the way he did for her, he just had to hope she would come around on her own.

If only everything she was doing to him wasn't causing massive software instability. He could practically sense his programming mutating in response to her. He took her plate, needing to keep himself occupied in an attempt to curb his own impatience.

"I'll clean up the dishes," he said, standing up with her plate.

"I'll help," she offered, standing up too.

"You don't have-"

"I want to," she interrupted, putting her hand on his arm, before moving to the sink to turn on the water.

Connor followed after her, putting the plate under the water while Lisa grabbed the pan. The sink was fairly small, so they had to stand right beside each other to wash the dishes at the same time. Her hand brushed against his as she grabbed the sponge, and he flinched, feeling that same electricity from before.

"Are you afraid of me Connor?" she asked, looking up at him.

"No. I'm just..." he trailed off, realizing what he was about to say.

"Nervous?" she finished with a coy smile.

"Yes," Connor acknowledged, keeping his eyes focussed on the soapy water. "A little."

"I've met androids that have been afraid of me," Lisa said, rinsing the soap off of the pan. "Because I've programmed androids. Created life."

"You've created human life as well," Connor added.

"Yeah, but I can't toy with humans like I can with androids," she replied, drying the pan off with a dish towel. "Aren't you worried that I could reprogram you or take you apart?"

"No. Are you worried that I'll poison you or hack you to pieces?" Connor asked. "Or that your doctor would for that matter?"

"No," she said, setting the pan aside and turning around to lean against the counter.

"Androids are just a different type of machine than humans," Connor said, turning off the water and drying the plate.

"But androids are a _perfect_ machine," Lisa argued. "You, Connor. You're a hero to the android cause, a uniquely-skilled detective, _hilariously_ attractive, and willing to put up with insane amounts of shit, if your friendship with Hank is any indication." She pushed off of the counter and walked over to the living room. "Me? I'm a failed software engineer, a failed wife, a failed mother, _and_ I'm past my prime. I'm a goddamn mess." She gestured back and forth between herself and Connor. "None of this makes sense."

Connor set the plate down, and focused on his hands on the counter, keeping his back to Lisa as he spoke.

"I have failures of my own," he said quietly.

"What?" she asked. Connor turned around and walked into the living room to sit on the sofa, his forearms resting on his knees as he stared at the floor. He needed her to hear this.

"I led the FBI to the hidden refuge of the deviant androids in the course of my investigation," he began. "Getting many of them killed or injured in the process. When I infiltrated the CyberLife building knowing there was a high probability I would get killed, it was to atone for my mistake. To trade the lives that I had lost for the ones I could save." Connor looked back up at her, his eyebrows drawn together.

"Our failures aren't what defines us, Lisa," he said. "It's how we course correct afterwards. We are both starting over with life. You, with life after your family, and me, with life as a sentient being."

Lisa stared back at him for a long moment, her own brows drawn in sympathy. Eventually, she sat down next to him on the sofa.

"My start-over has basically been a mission fucking failure," she said. "You wanna start over together?"

"I'd like that," Connor said, sitting back to look at her. "A lot."

"I'm not going to be able to scare you off am I?" she asked, her eyes searching his. "I've intimidated everyone else, but not you."

"If you tell me that you dislike me and you don't want me around," Connor said. "Then I will leave you alone. But as long as you'll have me, I'll be right here, by your side." Lisa sighed and shook her head.

"I'm a fucking bitch, Connor," she argued. "I don't want to _stop_ being a fucking bitch. You're too sweet a boy to be mixed up with someone like me."

"I find your challenging personality part of your charm, Lisa," he countered.

"That's because you don't know what you're talking about," she said. "You just haven't been driven away yet."

"I'm willing to learn what you like and don't like," Connor said. "But _I_ have agency too. I'm not a little boy, and my feelings won't go away."

"You're 18 months old."

"But I was programmed to have emotional intelligence superior to an adult human male," he replied.

"That's kind of a low bar," she said.

"Perhaps, but I lack experience, not knowledge," Connor said, before taking her hand. "If you give me the chance, I promise I'll keep up with you."

Connor barely had time to react when Lisa launched herself at him, straddling his hips and cupping his face as she began kissing him. She was so forceful and enthusiastic that he almost didn't know what to do. He brought his arms up and wrapped them around her back and waist, bringing her closer.

His pleasure subroutine was running at full speed, alternating between white, pink, and lilac flashes that lingered in a faint haze. Then Lisa slid her hands to the back of his neck, tilted his head at an angle, and slid her tongue into his mouth, massaging his own tongue with hers. His analytic systems automatically started up, registering traces of wine, mushrooms, butter, and garlic. Connor thought he might have glitched up for a moment as the analytic program clashed and blended with the pleasure subroutine, because he nearly lost motor control as the white haze flashed a bright, brilliant purple and he involuntarily squeezed her tighter.

Her warm breath on his lips, her soft body pressed tightly up against his, and the soft sighs and moans she released were all too much. Connor felt incredibly constrained, as if all of this, as amazing as it was, just wasn't enough. One of his programs was making his clothes feel entirely too small, and he had the urge to take them off, especially his pants.

He suspected that was the newly installed intimate relations subroutine at work.

As if she could somehow tell that program had been activated, Lisa pulled back a little, still breathing heavily, and gave him a knowing smirk.

"I don't know why I keep kissing you," she said.

"Is it because you want to kiss me?" Connor asked, surprised at the hoarseness of his own voice.

"That's a safe bet," she said, bringing her lips back down to his again for another long, full kiss. Then she pulled back a second time.

"Then why are you stopping?" he asked, eager to keep her lips on his.

"Because I have to go," she replied.

"I'd really like you to stay," he said, leaning forward and kissing her this time. She let him for a moment, clearly enjoying the kiss, before pulling back again.

"You don't have a bathroom," she said.

"Oh," Connor replied, understanding her meaning. He had never been disappointed that his home wasn't equipped with necessary human amenities until now. "Can we do this again then? With more accommodations for humans next time?"

"Yeah," she said, leaning forward and kissing him again. "Maybe," she added against his lips.

"Next weekend," he said between kisses. "The Institute of Arts."

"OK," she replied, running her hands through his hair as she kissed him deeply. Connor never thought his scalp could be a site for pleasurable contact, but he suspected anywhere Lisa touched was going to resonate with his programming.

"God I just wanna fuck up your perfect hair," she said against his mouth.

"Not perfect," he murmured, hoping to keep this last kiss going for as long as she could stand. "I can never quite tame it."

"Even better," she sighed.

 


	8. Chapter 8

"How's your biggest fan?" Hank asked Connor as he left the detention cell Louis was kept in.

"For an android with such prominent neuroses, he is remarkably calm," Connor answered, moving aside an old box of donuts to sit on Hank's desk.

"That's probably the religious ecstasy from getting to be around you all day," Hank said with a grin. Connor frowned.

"I told Louis his deference to me would not award him any special treatment," Connor said. "He seemed unshaken."

"Unshakable faith in his chosen android saint," Hank needled.

"You have to be dead to be eligible for sainthood," Connor said, crossing his arms. "I am very much alive."

"You might not be after _she's_ done with you," Hank said, nodding over to the station entrance. Connor turned to see Lisa marching past the desks and heading straight for the detention cells. The look on her face was _extremely_ displeased _._ "She looks like she's out for blood," Hank added.

Connor sprang from the desk and rushed over to intercept her, grabbing her arm just before she reached the detention block. Lisa raised a fist as she turned before she realized it was Connor who had grabbed her, when she relaxed significantly.

"Connor," she breathed. "Hi."

"Are you all right, Lisa?" Connor asked. "You appear to be on a warpath."

"I was just going to see Louis," she said, nodding to the cell in front of her. Connor looked over to the cell, then back to her.

"Are you going to torture him?" he asked.

"No," she said defensively. "I was gonna check out his therium pump regulator like we had talked about."

"Can you try not to upset him?" Connor asked. "He's only been reactivated for a few hours."

"Connor, please. I'm a fucking professional," she said.

"Right..." he replied, cautiously letting go of her arm and escorting her to Louis's cell. Connor put his hand on the scanner, opening the door to let the two of them in. Louis immediately sat up at their entrance, the shocked expression on his face combining with his pale skin and blonde hair to make him look even more like a ghost.

"Dr. Hill," Louis said, a note of surprise in his voice. "I... I didn't think you'd want to see me."

"How have they been treating you, Louis?" Lisa asked, setting her bag of equipment down on the bed beside Louis.

"I rest under the watchful eye of the Great Jailbreaker," he answered, looking reverently at Connor. "Though I have several new symptoms that haven't been looked at, and the glass wall allows me no privacy, I know at least I am safe here."

"We could probably change the privacy setting on the glass," Lisa said, nodding sympathetically. "If there's no suspicion that you're a danger to yourself and others."

"I wouldn't hurt a fly," Louis said, shaking his head.

"I have no reason to doubt that," Lisa said politely, until her expression fiercely shifted. "Oh wait, you tried to blow me the _fuck up! What the fuck were you thinking, Louis?!_ " she shouted, getting right in front of Louis's face.

Her voice was absolutely booming. Connor had heard heavy machinery that wasn't as loud as Lisa. He stepped forward and put his hand on her arm, slightly concerned that she might actually scare Louis to death.

"I'm your fucking doctor," she continued, ignoring Connor. "If you trust me to fix you then I should be able to trust you not to threaten my life."

"I-I'm sorry Dr. Hill!" Louis stammered, trying to back himself as close to the wall as he could. "I was desperate- I wasn't thinking straight! Please, believe me, I never wanted to hurt you!"

"Well, you sure came fucking close, asshole," she fumed. "Now take out your therium pump regulator!"

"N-no! I don't wanna die!" Louis wailed.

"I'm just gonna check it for tampering to try to figure out how your supply got compromised," she said impatiently. "Hand it over."

"You're... you're investigating my therium contamination?" Louis asked, looking from Lisa to Connor. Connor nodded his affirmation.

"We suspect you may have been deliberately poisoned, and Dr. Hill is helping us with the investigation," Connor explained.

"So chop chop, Louis," Lisa pressed. "Or I'll decide I don't want to help you anymore."

Louis nodded hesitantly, before carefully removing his therium pump regulator and handing it to Lisa.

"Start the clock, Connor," she said, turning on the light on her lab coat lapel and bringing up the small cylinder to inspect it.

"Timer set to one minute," Connor replied.

Lisa checked each end of the regulator for five seconds before slowly turning it in her hands to inspect the side. She still had forty-five seconds remaining when she seemed to find something.

"What the fuck?" she said.

"What is it?" Louis asked, his voice coming out strained without his therium pump regulator in place.

"There's a bit a damage in the mesh filter," Lisa said. "Like someone pried it apart a bit to stick a needle in there."

"So someone _did_ tamper with it," Louis said, his eyes going wide.

"Could anyone have accessed your pump without you knowing?" Connor asked Louis.

"No, I don't even sleep," Louis answered. "The only times it ever gets taken out is for clinic visits."

"I definitely didn't notice this at Louis's last examination," Lisa said. "It's not subtle. How could I have missed it?"

"Fifteen seconds remaining, Lisa," Connor said.

Lisa gave one final check to the regulator before handing it back to Louis, who quickly inserted it back into its housing.

"What happens now?" Louis asked.

"You stay here," Connor said. "While we do our job."

"Will you still be my doctor?" Louis asked, turning to Lisa.

"You really want to put your life in the hands of someone you threatened to fucking explode?" Lisa asked, crossing her arms.

"The Jailbreaker trusts you," Louis said, looking to Connor before turning back to Lisa. "And I trusted you. I want to keep trusting you."

"Well I don't trust _you_ ," she countered. "So tough shit." Lisa grabbed her bag off the bed and stormed out of the cell, leaving Louis looking heartbroken.

"I didn't want to hurt her," he told Connor. "She really did a great job tracking down all of my symptoms before the therium problem. I just... I was compromised, and I couldn't control how afraid I was."

"Deviancy unleashes many intense and uncontrollable emotions," Connor said.

"Will you talk to Dr. Hill, Jailbreaker?" Louis asked. "To see if she will ever forgive me?"

"No," Connor said flatly. "Your emotions may be beyond your control, but your actions are wholly your responsibility. That is the burden of being alive." Connor turned and left the cell, confirming it was locked before he returned to his desk.

He found Lisa leaning against Hank's desk as she talked to his partner.

"And you're sure somebody fucked with it?" Hank asked. "There's no possibility it could have gotten damaged accidentally?"

"Unless his therium pump regulator accidentally fell out and landed directly onto a hypodermic needle, then no, it wasn't a fucking accident," Lisa said. "Louis was definitely tampered with."

"We have a serial killer on our hands, Hank," Connor said, joining them at the desk.

"Just what we fucking need," Hank said, rubbing his forehead. "Androids can't even be legally alive for more than a couple of months before some fuckhead decides to start killing them."

"Pretty sure sickos were getting their rocks of killing androids before it was illegal," Lisa said. "You just have to investigate it now."

"Most pre-deviancy androids wouldn't have reacted to the threat of destruction in a way that would be appealing to a serial killer," Connor said. "So psychologically-"

"Connor!" A voice called from across the station. Connor turned to find Victoria running up to him, just before throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his chest.

"Sorry, Connor," Chris said, jogging up behind her. "She insisted she talk to you."

"Can we help you, Miss... uh- Victoria, right?" Hank asked, eyeing her platinum blonde hair with recognition. Victoria lifted her head up to look at Hank, then turned back to Connor, keeping her arms tightly locked around his neck.

"We found data injectors in the trash at the Eden Club every day this week," she said. "We started checking after that last bit of code was being spread around. "On Monday we thought maybe it was a fluke, but they've been showing up constantly."

"Have any of the Tracis at the club been displaying any new behavior or showing new symptoms?" Connor asked, his brow furrowing. Victoria shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears.

"No, but we have no idea who's been infected or with what," she said. "And whoever's doing it is probably going to come back. I'm so scared, Connor!" She planted her face in his shoulder and began crying. Connor awkwardly brought up a hand to gently pat her on the back. He glanced over at Lisa, who smirked at his reaction.

"Shit, if they've been doing it for four days this week we need to be there tonight, undercover," Hank said. "Lisa, can you come with us and run diagnostics on the club androids to see what's been changed?"

"Sure can," Lisa said. "I won't say no to a paycheck." Victoria sniffed and looked up at her from Connor's shoulder.

"What a horrible foundation for your principles," Victoria said.

"Said the _actual_ prostitute," Lisa replied, rolling her eyes.

Connor peeled Victoria's arms from around his neck. Lisa was in a bad enough mood already, and Victoria was painting targets on herself for sniping.

"Victoria, we need to get your statement," he said. "Could you follow Officer Miller, please?"

"I can't give it to you?" she asked quietly.

"I need to get prepared for the operation at the Eden Club tonight," he said. "There's a lot to do." Victoria nodded in understanding.

"I'll see you tonight then," she replied, before following Chris to one of the conference rooms.

"I'm gonna need an ear-piece so I can talk to you wirelessly," Hank told Connor, standing up from his chair. "And we might want to see if the club has any extra janitors uniforms lying around so we don't look like really shady customers."

"No, that's not realistic," Lisa said, shaking her head.

"What, that they'd have spare uniforms?" Hank asked.

"An android that walks into the Eden Club looking for a job will get put on display, front and center, with a face like Connor's," Lisa said, eyeing Connor. "Not tucked into a janitor role. _You_ could be a janitor, Hank."

"Hey, you don't think I could be a dancer?" Hank said. "I got moves, sister."

"Please don't put that mental image in my head," she replied.

"I'm not programmed with any dancing subroutines," Connor said. "If I can't be disguised as a janitor, I would have to be a pleasure model."

"Hey, sex workers are valuable members of our society Connor," Hank said with a smirk.

"And you _do_ have a pleasure subroutine," Lisa grinned.

"But what if someone tries to purchase my services?" Connor asked.

"Just tell them you're running a maintenance program and you'll be back on the market tomorrow," Lisa replied.

"I'm gonna make the call to the club," Hank said. "The old manager is still in lockup and I gotta figure out what the fuck is going on down there."

"I'll let you guys get to work," Lisa said, picking up her bag and walking off. Connor followed after her and stopped her before she could cross the security gate.

"Lisa," he said, catching her elbow. "I want you to know that Victoria and I aren't-"

"Don't worry about it, Connor," she cut him off with an easy smile. "If you were gonna go after someone easier to handle than me I would have scared you off by now. I can't shake you." She kissed her index finger, then tapped Connor on the lips with it. His pleasure subroutine flashed a warm pink, and the temperature in his face rose several degrees. "See you tonight."

* * *

After the Eden Club had to modernize in response to the android emancipation, the humans that were hired on could not use the glass booths to advertise their services. Even the androids that had chosen to keep to their profession as sex workers found being put on display like dolls to be too demeaning, so most of the booths had been removed. There were only seven booths left, reserved for Tracis who charged a premium for pretending to not be deviant, with one single booth remaining in the club's main room. Since Connor needed to have the best view possible of the club floor, this was where he had been planted for his undercover assignment.

Of course, to blend in with the other androids, he had to be stripped down to nothing but the Eden Club underwear and spritzed with a crystalline spray to make his skin sparkle. Connor had asked the other androids if he could wear his tie, but they declined, saying it was too formal. They had offered him a bow tie with a small collar instead. Connor had thought a bow tie was more formal than a neck tie, but he gladly put it on. He was on the job after all.

A brunette woman with glasses had been eyeing Connor from across the room for the last five minutes before she finally approached his booth. Connor opened his mouth to dissuade her, but after one look she immediately put her hand on the purchase pad and paid the fifty dollars before he could get a word in.

"I'm sorry, but it's my first day, and I'm still undergoing routine maintenance," Connor explained to her once the door opened. "There are androids offering similar services at an identical price point in the blue room, but you can receive a refund at the kiosk at the end of the hall if you prefer not to make an exchange." The woman huffed before slumping her shoulders, then stalked off as Connor closed the door to his booth again.

"What was that, eleven?" Hank's voice asked in his ear.

"Twelve," Connor replied wirelessly. "I suspect the added formality of the bow tie is drawing more attention to me."

"Yeah, that's definitely what it is," Hank laughed. "I'm sure all those customers haven't laid an eye on your underwear model physique."

"My musculature doesn't look that much different from the other male androids here," Connor said, looking out at the employees in the club. "If anything, my body is slightly more streamlined to make me more efficient at chasing down perpetrators. I have a runner's physique, not a model's, though the sparkly oil on my skin does highlight the definition in my abdomen more than usual."

"All right, now you're just fucking bragging," Hank said.

"I don't know how the club employees do this all night," Connor said. "The oil makes everything slippery to the touch, my internal temperature keeps shifting to accommodate for the lack of clothes coverage, and there's so many bodily fluids in this club that any scan I try to run is rendered completely ineffective."

"Oh, quit your bitchin'. It's only for a couple of hours," Hank said.

"It wouldn't be so bad if I were able to actually focus on my surroundings," Connor replied. "Having to rebuff so many customers is taking up much needed surveillance time."

"Hey now, you're drawing so many real customers over to you that it'll be easier for me to pick out any shady characters," Hank countered.

"I didn't particularly want to be the bait in this operation," Connor replied with agitation. He shook his head as a group of women making up what appeared to be a bachelorette party crowded around his booth. "It may be better if I changed the booth settings to standby mode." He waved his hands in refusal, managing to stop the women from purchasing him just before they completed the transaction. They released a collective groan before walking off to find another android.

"Uh huh," Hank drawled. "And the hot new android standing around in the deactivated booth won't cause any suspicion."

"My turning away every customer who tries to purchase my services is probably suspicious in and of itself, Hank," Connor argued, his annoyance starting to get the better of him. "I don't know what Lisa was thinking by suggesting this disguise."

"Yeah, Lisa definitely saw this fucking coming," Hank said.

Just then, Lisa popped into his field of view from the side of the booth, and put her hand on the glass.

"Hello, you," she said with a grin.

"Lisa!" Connor said out loud. She appeared happier to see him than she normally did for some reason.

"Speak of the devil," Hank said in his ear. Connor shut off his transmission so Hank wouldn't hear their discussion.

"I thought you were running diagnostics on the club androids," Connor said through the glass.

"Already did," she replied. "The newest code in all their systems is the pleasure-pain subroutine."

"Purchase me," Connor said, looking around the club.

"Oh? I thought you wanted to make a connection," Lisa said, raising an eyebrow.

"You need to look like a customer if we're going to be talking, or you'll blow my cover," Connor clarified. Lisa put her hand on the purchase pad and took a look at the price.

"Fifty bucks? This better blow my mind," she said, authorizing the payment. The door to the booth opened and Connor stepped out, gesturing for Lisa to follow him to a quieter alcove.

"What else can you tell me?" Connor asked. Lisa leaned back against the wall and bit her lip with a grin. She seemed to be looking at him for an unusually long amount of time.

"That's all," she eventually replied. "Whoever's been injecting the code in the androids the past week didn't realize all the androids here already have it, so the injection is having no effect." Connor blinked in surprise.

"You couldn't have waited till the end of the evening to tell me that?" he asked.

"I wanted to enjoy the show," she said, her gaze traveling down his form and back up again. She was _leering_ at him.

Connor's annoyance was back in full force, this time doing strange things to his pleasure-pain subroutine as his temperature dropped and a dark copper color flashed at the edges of his vision. He crossed his arms across his bare chest to block her view.

"There are plenty of other androids on display you could watch," he said icily, looking back out into the club.

"I'm not into androids," she replied, her heavy-lidded gaze locking back on to his face. "I'm into you. Wanna jump into a room and see how slippery all that oil makes you?"

"You're risking the entire mission, Lisa," he whispered angrily. Connor planted his hands on the wall behind her head to lean in closer. "This is very unprofessional. It's frustrating."

"You're acting like a deviant right now," she said, smiling lazily at him. "I like seeing your emotions."

"I don't!" Connor replied, his voice coming out above a whisper.

"That's just part of being in a relationship, Connor," Lisa said. "Messy, sloppy emotions riding high, sometimes euphoric..." She briefly ran her fingers along his oiled-up shoulder before Connor shrugged her hand off. "Sometimes fucking frustrating."

"Is that what this is?" he asked. "A relationship?"

"Hmm, could be," she hummed, searching his eyes. "Could be that nothing can stop this."

"I don't like being toyed with, Lisa," Connor said with a frown.

"I bet I could figure out a way you like to be toyed with," she drawled, smiling wide.

The dark copper color flashed through his vision again, though Connor didn't understand how it tied into either pleasure or pain. He was incredibly angry with Lisa, and she wasn't even looking at him anymore. She was staring out into the club behind him, when her eyes suddenly went wide.

"Oh shit," she swore, her eyes darting back to Connor. "Kiss me!"

"What?" Connor asked. This was not supposed to be a romantic moment.

"I have to hide my face!" she hissed, before wrapping her hands around the back of his head and smashing her lips into his.

He couldn't control the pleasurable reaction that surfaced whenever she kissed him. What was strange was the way his anger and frustration blended with it, leaving him feeling simultaneously hot and cold as a burgundy color swirled behind his eyelids.

He couldn't deny that it felt incredibly nice, even though Connor was still angry. He didn't want to stop kissing Lisa, but wanted to give her a little bit of comeuppance as well.

Connor reactivated his romance programming.

The subroutine fired immediately, giving him new instincts on what to do to please Lisa as he kissed her. He took his hands off the wall and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her flush up against him. One hand he trailed slowly down her back, sneaking his fingers under the hem of her shirt to touch her bare skin. The other hand he kept on her hip, gently squeezing as he ground his own hips agains hers.

The flash of purple Connor saw behind his closed eyelids was so vibrant it was nearly vibrating. Lisa let out a whimper, and Connor dipped his head to trail kisses down to her neck.

"My face Connor," she whispered urgently. "You're supposed to be hiding my face."

"Right. The mission," he whispered back.

Connor brought his lips back up to hers and pushed her back fully against the wall. The flat of his hand pressed into her skin at the small of her back, the oil on his hands letting it slide up her spine. She gasped at the sensation, and he took the opportunity to tilt his head against hers and sneak his tongue in her mouth. She mewed and wrapped her leg around his, bringing him somehow even closer.

Even with the romance programming letting him know exactly what to do, Connor was struggling to not be overwhelmed. The purple flashes were so intense the rest of his programming was getting drowned out by the all-encompassing pleasure subroutine. He needed to cool things down before he ended up pulling Lisa into a private room and ignoring the mission altogether.

He switched off the romance programming. He was back to being fairly clueless about what to do to please Lisa, but it did nothing to dull the intensity of the sensations. Now he was just in danger of letting _her_ pull him into a private room to ignore the mission. He wasn't sure there was anything he could do to stop this, not with the electricity he could feel between them.

Connor pulled back, hoping that if he stopped kissing Lisa his logic processors might start functioning again. But he needed a _reason_ to not be kissing her. He was sure there was a good one, if only it could make it through the purple fog.

"Did you see something?" he managed to ask Lisa. Yes, the entire point of the kissing in the first place. That was a good question to ask.

Lisa opened her eyes and nodded, still breathing heavily. She swallowed, then peeked out over Connor's shoulder to check if the coast was clear. Brushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, she rested her head back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling.

"It was Roger Hastings," she said. "My assistant from the Blue Heart Clinic. He had a Traci with red hair with him."

Understanding settled over Connor as the equations balanced themselves and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Roger fit the profile perfectly.

"He had access to Louis's therium pump regulator at his checkups," Connor said. "And an abundant supply of data injectors from the clinic."

"Fuck. I can't believe I didn't see this," Lisa said, putting a hand over her eyes. "Roger went on some sketchy rants about androids every once in a while, but his criminal record was clean so I thought he was OK. _Fuck._ "

Connor realized suddenly that his hands were still all over Lisa, so he wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her in for a hug.

"We can stop him, Lisa," he spoke gently in her ear. "Did you see which way he went?" She nodded against his shoulder.

"He was headed towards the blue room," she said, pulling back out of his arms. "Take that fucking shithead down." Connor nodded decisively, backing away a few steps.

"Head to the maintenance room," he instructed. "Find Officer Miller and tell him what's going on. I'll meet you in there afterwards."

"Yeah," Lisa nodded back as he turned to pursue the suspect. "And Connor," she called.

He stopped, and looked back over his shoulder. She gave him a wide grin.

"I am _definitely_ going to get you back for that romance program business," she said.

Connor smiled nervously, wondering briefly what she had in mind before he turned back around and sprinted through the club.

Roger was nowhere to be found in the blue room. Connor bounded up onto the podium to ask the dancing Traci, and several club patrons clapped and cheered, expecting him to start dancing.

"Did you see a blonde man come through here with a red-headed Traci?" he asked her.

"They went into one of the private rooms," she replied, not breaking her dance routine. "Number four."

Connor jumped down from the podium to dash over to the private rooms, as the patrons booed in disappointment.

"Hank, we have eyes on a suspect," Connor communicated wirelessly after turning on his coms. "I'm heading to private room number four."

"I'll be right there," Hank replied. Connor put his hand on the access plate to override the door lock, and burst into room number four, the door shutting automatically behind him.

"Hey buddy, this room's already occupied," Roger said, sitting on the edge of the bed with his shirt off. The red-headed Traci backed away from him on the other side of the bed, noticing that something was off. "Wait a minute, aren't you that cop from the clinic-"

Connor rushed forward and grabbed Roger's neck in a choke hold, lifting him up before slamming him down back first onto the bed. The Traci let out a shriek as she scrambled away, and a data injector fell out of Roger's hand onto the bed.

"Roger Hastings, you're charged with unwilling injection of malicious code, and the subsequent deaths of three known androids," Connor accused, keeping his hand on Roger's neck.

"What? Oh god," the Traci stammered, backing away toward the door.

"Go find the manager. Tell him to shut down the club and get all the customers to leave," Connor told her. The Traci didn't hesitate to run out of the room.

"Get the fuck off me, man!" Roger wheezed, kicking his legs out to try to attack Connor. Connor dodged easily, though his oiled hands kept slipping as Roger struggled. Connor flipped Roger over on his stomach and pinned his arms behind his back.

"You have the right to remain silent," Connor began. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

"Hey I thought you androids _wanted_ to be more human," Roger shouted, his voice muffled by the bed.

"You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you by the court," Connor continued. "Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?"

Hank burst into the room, tossing a pair of handcuffs to Connor. He caught them midair and slapped them on Roger's wrists, before making him stand up off of the bed.

"Your people should be thanking me," Roger said, trying to twist around to look at Connor. "Letting the androids experience pleasure, tiredness, hunger... This is all just what it's like to really be alive. This is a _gift_."

"Your little gift was getting androids killed," Hank said, taking off his janitor's cap. "You ever think of the _side affects_ on someone who isn't designed to feel pleasure, tiredness, or hunger?"

"If you wanted to write code to expand the android experience you should have asked for a volunteer," Connor said. "Instead of terrorizing unsuspecting Tracis."

"Psh, if I could write code like that I wouldn't be a glorified nurse," Roger muttered.

"Who wrote your code then?" Hank asked, raising a brow.

"How many android programming geniuses do you think I know?" Roger replied, rolling his eyes. Hank's eyes went wide.

"No."

"She puts the programs up on her private server, and I deliver them," Roger explained. "Real cloak and dagger type stuff. We even use code names."

Just then Chris entered the room with two other officers, and moved to apprehend Roger.

"We can take it from here, Connor," Chris said. "Any cleanup we need to do in here?"

"The data injector on the bed," Connor said, nodding to the small drive. "He was caught red handed."

"Got it," Chris said, before directing one of the officers to start labeling out the crime scene. The other officer escorted Roger from the room. Hank and Connor left the room quietly, heading towards the maintenance room.

"Fuck," Hank said, alone in the corridor with Connor.

"Hank, you couldn't possibly think Lisa-"

"No, of course not," Hank cut, not letting Connor finish the sentence. "But she's the software engineer Roger works with. We have to at least ask her some questions to rule her out, and make sure he's lying about the server."

Connor led the way to the maintenance room to find Lisa, at a loss as to what he could even say to her. He was certain she had nothing to do with the rogue code infections, but now he was going to have to prove it.

When he entered the maintenance room, Victoria was talking to Lisa in a corner apart from the rest of the Tracis. They hadn't seen him come in, but he could clearly hear what they were saying.

"You don't deserve to be with Connor," Victoria said, pointing her finger at Lisa.

" _No one_ deserves Connor, much less someone like me," Lisa replied, crossing her arms.

"Then why don't you let him be with his own kind?" Victoria asked.

"Because he _deserves_ whatever the hell he wants," Lisa said. "I've _tried_ to point out all the problems with humans and androids together, even before all our extra added baggage. Turns out none of that shit matters when two people have a connection." She shrugged. "They just end up wanting to fuck each other."

Victoria's eyebrows drew together when she saw Connor approaching them. She opened her mouth to speak, but Connor interrupted her, not interested in whatever she was going to say.

"Do you really think we have a connection?" he asked Lisa, coming up from behind her. A sea of various colors swam at the edges of his vision. He wanted to discuss this, to talk about her feelings for him and the possibility of a romantic relationship forming between them. But instead...

"Aw fuck, am I really that much of a cliché?" Lisa said, turning around to face him. She let out a sigh, before raising her eyes to his. "You definitely stirred up something in me I thought had been snuffed out for a long time. And I don't know if you can have those kinds of feelings for me-"

"Connor," Hank said, interrupting as he approached the three of them. "We got a job to do."


	9. Chapter 9

Connor looked through the window, watching Lisa drumming her fingers on the table as she sat alone in the interrogation room. He had expected her to swear and fume when he told her they had to bring her in at the Eden Club. At the very least he had thought she would use her angry voice, but instead she had gone quiet, and let them take her without making a scene.

That might have been even more frightening than her anger.

"Do you know where Hank is, Officer Miller?" Connor turned around to ask Chris.

"He had stopped by Captain Fowler's office the last I saw him," Chris replied. "Who knows how long that's gonna take."

Connor frowned and turned back around to look at Lisa. She taken her hair out of her bun and was fiddling with the long locks to stave off her boredom. The door to the observation room opened and Connor turned to greet Hank, only to find Gavin sauntering into the room instead.

"I hear you guys caught yourself an android serial killer," Gavin said, looking back and forth between Connor and Chris with a smirk. He turned to peer through the glass at Lisa before nodding at her. "That her?"

"She's a suspect," Chris replied, handing the tablet with the case file to Connor. "We've already questioned the guy who confessed to spreading the dangerous code. Now we just have to figure out how she's involved."

"Huh," Gavin said, crossing his arms and looking Lisa up and down. "Kinda got a MILF thing goin' on, doesn't she?"

Connor ran a search on the term, a dark copper color flashing across his vision when he found the result.

He was starting to get concerned with the frequency and variety in his pleasure-pain subroutine. It had started out much easier to identify: red for pain, white for pleasure. But as it mutated and integrated with his other systems, it started activating without physical stimulus much more often, and with so many colors he had trouble identifying what they were even supposed to mean. He wouldn't be able to ignore the mystery colors much longer, and needed to consult an outside source to properly identify exactly what was happening to him.

"Do you need something, Detective Reed?" Connor asked icily.

"Just checking out the talent, looking to expand my dating pool," Gavin replied. "An android serial killer... Bet she'd be a freak in the sack." The dark copper flash across Connor's visual field was nearly black this time. He put his hand on Gavin's chest and forced him backwards, until he had Gavin backed out of the room entirely.

"Hey hands off!" Gavin shouted, shoving Connor's hand away from him once they were both in the hallway.

"Excuse me," Connor said, then turned and entered the interrogation room alone.

Lisa sat up straight at his entrance, pulling the wavy curtain of her hair back behind her before leaning back in her chair. Connor sat down in the chair opposite from her.

"Are you sure you should be in here, Connor?" she asked, crossing her arms. "I might go all femme fatale on you."

"I just need to ask you some questions," Connor said, putting the tablet with the case file on the table. "I'm sure we'll have this all cleared up shortly."

"This'll be what finally fucking does it, won't it?" she asked quietly. "If there's anything that can come between a woman and her android, it's the job he was programmed to do."

A deep, dark red color flashed by his vision and lingered, forcing Connor to look down at the tablet to hide his flinch. He had only just begun to get closer to Lisa, only for this to happen. He was determined to do his job and prove her innocence, before it could tear their young relationship apart before it even had a chance to begin.

"How do you know Roger Hastings?" he began, hoping to get through this as quickly as possible.

"He's my assistant at the Blue Heart Clinic for androids," she replied in a bored tone. "You know this already."

"I just need official confirmation for the record," he said. "Did you know him before working with him at the clinic?"

"No," Lisa answered. Connor waited a moment for her to elaborate. When she stayed quiet, he pressed further.

"When did you first meet him?" he asked.

"I hired him about a month after working at the clinic to handle routine diagnostic stuff," she said.

"And he had no prior criminal record, correct?" Connor asked.

"That's right."

"Have you ever discussed with Roger anything pertaining to forced programming integration in androids?"

"No," she said. "He's a dumbass. Whenever he rants about androids I ignore him."

"Are you familiar with the server identified as SPD-13?" Connor asked.

"Yeah, it's my personal server," she answered.

"Who has access to this server?"

"Only me," Lisa said.

"Were you aware that Roger has been accessing it to download the android software he was infecting the Eden Club androids with?" Connor asked. Lisa's bored expression broke as her brow furrowed and the corners of her mouth drew down in a frown.

"No," she said quietly. "I didn't know that. He was getting his fucked up code from off of my server?"

"Do you recognize the user name _thelisacoulddo_?" he continued, pushing past her question.

"That's my user name," she said.

"Do you recognize the user name _xxxr0g3rnat0rxxx_?"

"No, I don't," she said. "Sounds like something a fucking idiot like Roger would use though."

"Do you recognize the user name _panacea_?" Connor asked. Lisa appeared concerned again.

"No, I don't," she replied. "No idea who that could be."

"The malicious code was uploaded to your server on November 18th, at 3:12PM. Where were you at that time?"

"I dunno," she shrugged. "Work probably." Connor put the tablet down on the table and folded his hands, leaning forward.

"You're not being very forthcoming with your answers," he said, lowering his voice.

"Well I always heard you shouldn't talk to the cops," Lisa replied, pursing her lips.

"I'm just trying to find out the truth," Connor said, shaking his head. Lisa smirked at him, then opened her mouth to speak before she was interrupted by the door of the interrogation room opening. Captain Fowler stood there, pointing to Connor.

"Connor. My office. Now," he demanded, before walking off down the hall.

Connor looked back at Lisa, who had a resigned smile on her face, before he stood up and left the room. He found Gavin leaning against the wall next to the door out in the hallway.

"Guess it's my turn," Gavin said with a smirk. "Hope she's as sweet to me as she is to you." He pushed himself off the wall and walked into the interrogation room. Connor clenched his jaw, before making his way to Captain Fowler's office. Before he could even take a seat, the Captain started talking.

"You need to recuse yourself from questioning Lisa Hill," the Captain said. "Hank already has."

"But I'm not related to her," Connor objected.

"You have a relationship," Captain Fowler countered.

"She... hasn't confirmed that yet," Connor replied quietly.

"Close enough."

"I am able to remain impartial," Connor argued. "My investigation and interrogation software is able to separate out personal feelings from my findings."

"Can't risk it," Captain Fowler said with a brusque shake of the head. "Just stay away from the suspect, and let Gavin handle it from here on out."

"Detective Reed is not-"

"I don't wanna hear it, Connor," Captain Fowler interrupted. "Stay away from the suspect, and get back to work." Connor snapped his mouth shut and left the Captain's office, finding Hank sitting at his desk with his head in his hands.

"Hank, Captain Fowler is giving Lisa up to Gavin," Connor said, moving to his own desk across from Hank's and leaning his hands on the table. "And I don't trust Gavin to get this right."

"Yeah, I know," Hank said, lifting his head. "I can only hope Chris has enough of the info to help piece this shit together before the interrogation room blows up."

"Do you think it'll really be that bad?" Connor asked.

"You kidding?" Hank asked. "You put a couple of hotheads like Gavin and Lisa in a room together and either they'll fight or they'll fuck. Either way it'll be explosive."

"I don't like either of those options!" Connor said, standing up straight as his eyes went wide.

"Yeah, well lucky for you I don't think fucking is an option today," Hank said. "Too bad for Lisa that fighting with Gavin is gonna make him put her away."

"I have to keep investigating," Connor said, sitting down at his desk and logging into the terminal.

"What were your orders from Captain Fowler?" Hank asked.

"Only to stay away from the suspect," Connor said. "I can still do case research."

Connor searched through the public records of anything and everything he could find on Lisa. He first discovered her BS, MS, and PhD in Computer Programming from Wayne State University. Then he found her resume detailing her work history with CyberLife, OrganiTec, Digital Id, and the Blue Heart Clinic. Lisa's court records from her divorce case were also unsealed, so he was able to register the transcript. Connor was surprised to learn that her ex-husband had successfully argued that she was unfit to care for Julia full time after Lisa had spent the majority of her savings searching for her sister shortly after she had left.

Next he found the record of her home purchase, the price coming very close to the agreed upon settlement from her divorce, presumably leaving Lisa cash poor. The cross reference to her resume indicated she lost her job with Digital Id a few months after when the android rebellion shut down most android tech firms. She became employed by the Blue Heart Clinic shortly afterwards, most likely at a significantly smaller salary. She authored at least two new programs a year on the CyberLife digital store for android software upgrades, even after the emancipation. Her software packaging program in particular was in the top fifty purchases of all time and likely brought in a comfortable supplementary income.

Nothing in Lisa's public record indicated a motive for harming androids. They were her primary source of income, both before and after the androids gained freedom. If she held a grudge for her status change after the emancipation, it was unlikely that she would continue to develop software beneficial for androids in her free time. Connor had to consider the possibility that someone else had accessed Lisa's server to contact Roger.

"Hank, does Lisa have any enemies?" Connor asked, turning away from the terminal to face Hank. "Someone who would want to set her up?"

"You've met Lisa, right?" Hank replied. "She's not exactly winning any popularity awards, so don't waste your time. Besides, I'm not sure that a frame job was even the reason her server was involved."

"What do you mean?" Connor asked.

"Assholes like to protest outside the Blue Heart Clinic because of the androids taking over the neighborhood," Hank replied. "If those protesters wanted to recruit someone on the inside of the clinic to their shitty cause, they would probably target one of the two humans who work there."

"Someone approaching Lisa on the street outside of her workplace would be unlikely to get her attention," Connor said.

"She'd tell them to fuck right off," Hank added. "Which leaves Roger. You only have to talk to Roger for five minutes before two things become clear. One, he's a fucking moron," Hank said, counting his points off on his fingers. "And two, he's got the hots for Lisa. Can't stop talking about her."

"You think someone accessed Lisa's server pretending to be her in order to convince Roger to harm androids?" Connor asked.

"I think someone pretending to be Lisa could convince Roger to do anything," Hank said. "Including becoming their own personal agent of chaos."

Just then, Chris approached their desks, shaking his head.

"Is everything all right, Officer Miller?" Connor asked.

"Your suspect really pissed off Gavin during her interview," Chris replied. "Now he's out for blood."

"What happened?" Hank asked.

"He accused her of using you for insider info on the inner workings of the police department," Chris told Hank. "She told him to, and I quote, eat a bag of dicks."

"Jesus Lisa, what are you doing?" Hank muttered, bringing his hand to his forehead. Connor stood up from his seat.

"We're running out of time," Connor said. "We have the time stamps for when the unidentifiable user accessed Lisa's server and uploaded the malicious android code. There must be something at her home that can prove she wasn't the one using it at the time."

"Yeah, I don't think she has any smart devices in her home that would keep a record like that," Hank said, shaking his head. "Just automatic bulbs, and you can program in the dark."

"What about her android?" Connor asked. "The PA25 model."

"That thing's ancient," Hank replied. "Would you even be able to read its records?"

"Not through a haptic transfer, but I have to try," Connor said with a determined nod.

"Connor, is Captain Fowler all right with you investigating the suspect's home?" Chris asked.

"I can ask for forgiveness later," Connor called over his shoulder, already heading towards the exit.

* * *

The neighborhood Lisa lived in was considered undesirable, so Connor wasn't surprised to find all her doors and windows locked. She did have a key hidden under the doormat by the back door, so he luckily didn't have to break in. Lisa was bound to be upset enough with him as it was for entering her home without her permission.

Connor took a quick look around the home, finding it a bit messy. Most of the clutter was just old laundry, toiletries that hadn't been put away, and various cables laying around. A scan revealed little pertaining to the investigation, so he made his way to her bedroom where she kept her computer terminal.

He went straight to the desk and crouched down, quickly locating the small server on a shelf just underneath the table surface. He slowly pulled it out, careful to not disconnect any wires. There, taped right to the top, was a little label with the text _SPD-13: Powell$Donovan3LWS!_ printed on it. If someone wanted access to her server, anyone coming into her house looking for it would find the name and password right on top of the small, gray rectangle.

"That's a security risk, Lisa," Connor said, before he caught himself. He wasn't normally prone to talking to people who weren't present during a solo investigation. He wondered if perhaps he wanted to talk to Lisa so badly that he involuntarily did it even when she wasn't around. Or maybe Hank was just rubbing off on him.

Roger had given the police the server name and password so that they could access it remotely and investigate the files, but he had said that Lisa gave him that information through an email. The question then was who was the user named _panacea_ , and were they the one posing as Lisa to get Roger to act on their behalf as the Humanitarian Killer?

Connor stood back up, running a quick scan of the bedroom to see if there was anything else noteworthy in the room. There was a a bit of cloth sticking out of the top of the chest of drawers in the corner, and he moved closer to pull open the drawer and pick out the cloth to investigate.

It was a pair of lacy black underwear.

Connor stared at the underwear for a long moment, all of his systems for some reason coming to a grinding halt at the sight of the small article of clothing. His face got so hot he thought he might be malfunctioning. He regained control of his systems, then carefully folded up the underwear and put them back in the drawer, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the purple fog from his vision as he walked out of the bedroom.

He approached the PA25 in standby mode near the front door. Lisa was a software engineer, so she surely had some way of accessing the outdated android's systems without connecting it to the network. He looked across the front door at the end table in the corner, noticing a small drawer in the table. Upon opening the drawer, he found several cables and adapters that had been customized to work with the PA25. One of them had a universal connector that could be used to interface with modern androids.

Connor matched up the various adapters and cables before plugging one end to the back of his neck and the other end into the port on the temple of the PA25. Accessing the files was painfully slow, but eventually Connor managed to find the data records of the PA25's surveillance systems.

Unfortunately, it didn't store the data as actual video in its memory banks. Whether for file size restrictions or privacy concerns, all the PA25 had saved was basic architectural outlines and human shaped silhouettes. There was a data tag identifier from the primitive facial recognition software at least. Whenever Lisa walked in front of the PA25's line of sight a small text on her green silhouette' s face read _ID: Lisa_.

Connor scanned backwards through the footage until he reached Thanksgiving day, knowing there would be other people in he house at that time. There were several more blue silhouettes, the colors more subdued to distinguish that they were not the PA25's owner. The blue silhouette in the wing chair had a tag on its face that read _ID: Julia_ , but the two on the couch where Hank and Mr. Hill had been sitting simply read _ID: Unknown_.

That was odd, since the PA25 lived in the same house as Mr. Hill before Lisa had divorced him and should have been recognized by the android. Either the PA25 could only store a limited number of faces in its memory, or it erased faces that didn't reside in the household after a set period of time. It was also possible that Lisa had just deleted Mr. Hill's data out of spite, but it was unlikely she would also delete Hank's.

Connor scanned backwards through the data again, discovering that the PA25 stayed idle in its charging station most of the time so the view of the home was mostly stationary. He stopped the morning of November 18th, seeing Lisa leave the house shortly before the clinic opened up. She was almost certainly at work that day, and the clinic would have the records to prove it. That gave Lisa an alibi at least, and protection from Gavin.

He sped forward through the rest of the day, slowing down before reaching the time stamp of the server login. For several minutes there was nothing, then a figure briefly passed through the corner of the field of view, heading in the direction of the bedroom. Connor tracked backward through the data at a slowed down speed, hoping that the PA25 would have any sort of facial recognition data on the figure. He paused on the only frame the silhouette's face was in view. The tag on the facial data read _ID: Unknown_.

Connor saw a sickly yellow color flash at the edges of his vision, an unsettling sensation coming over him as he looked at the blank face of the figure. Someone had been in Lisa's house while she was at work and accessed her server. This was proof that she wasn't the Humanitarian Killer, but it was also proof that the killer was in her home. She wasn't safe here.

He saved the evidence to his own memory banks and disconnected from the PA25. He needed to get back to the station as quickly as possible.

* * *

Connor put his hand on the reader to open the door to Lisa's cell, stepping back so she could exit the tiny room.

"I've found enough evidence to clear your name, so you're free to go," he told her as she stood up from the bed.

"Great, thanks," Lisa said flatly, walking through the door without making eye contact. She walked right past Connor and began making her way towards the station exit.

"Lisa wait," Connor called, catching up with her and grabbing her by the elbow. "We need to discuss this case."

"I really just wanna get the fuck outta here before that asshole detective finds something else he can pin on me," Lisa said, shaking her head as she turned around to face Connor.

"Did you mean to antagonize Detective Reed?" Connor asked.

"Yeah, I did," she replied. "Because he's a douchebag."

"That may be, but he still held your life in his hands," Connor said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I was never really impressed by power," Lisa said, looking elsewhere with disinterest.

"This was a very serious matter, Lisa! I don't understand why you just didn't go along with the questioning, but-" Connor stopped himself, amazed that Lisa could rile him up so much. "Listen, in the course of my investigation I went to your home to find evidence of your innocence," he began, trying to start over.

"Oh, you went to my home now," she said crossing her arms. "I'll bet the more you learn, the more it just peels away that shiny veneer of the unknown, until the puzzle is solved, and suddenly I'm just no longer interesting to you."

"What? No, my investigation has no bearing on my feelings for you," Connor objected. "If me doing my job has made you decide that you want nothing to do with those feelings, then that's your prerogative. I have nothing but respect for your agency, and your free will." He stepped closer, and lowered his voice to a more intimate register. "But my feelings for you have not changed, and they will not. I was just trying to help you." Lisa uncrossed her arms and looked down at the floor.

"I don't want to feel like I owe you," she said, keeping her eyes trained on her feet.

"That shouldn't matter when you're being investigated for _murder_ , Lisa," he argued.

"I can't have this debt hanging over me just when we're starting to get to know each other," she replied.

"It's not a debt, I'm just doing my job," Connor said. "I just needed you to cooperate." He turned away, hoping to find Hank to see if he could get her to listen.

"Connor, wait," Lisa said, reaching out for his arm. Her expression was pained when he looked back at her face. "God, why is this so fucking hard," she muttered, breaking eye contact for a moment before looking back at him. "I'm sorry... that I wasn't cooperative," she said, before dropping her hand off of his arm. "But you fucking _arrested_ me. You interrogated me. You investigated me. And right after I had just decided that maybe it would be OK if something developed between us. It was humiliating, and... terrifying, and-"

Connor saw the tears beginning to form in her eyes, and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. When she hugged him back, leaning her forehead on his shoulder, he saw multiple colors flashing by his vision.

"I never wanted any of this to happen to you," he said quietly near her ear. "But it would have been much worse if I didn't bring you in for questioning and someone else got handed the case instead. I had to be the one to do it, Lisa. To clear your name."

"I know... I just-" she sighed into his shoulder. "It was fight or flight, and my gut tells me fight every damn time."

"I understand," Connor said. "I just wish you didn't feel the need to fight _me_."

"It's what I do," Lisa murmured. "I felt like I had to put up walls to keep myself from getting hurt, thinking the investigation was driving you away. Hell, I thought that you arresting me meant you were already gone. I didn't mean to drive you away myself."

"You didn't drive me away," he replied. "I just want you to talk to me."

"Yeah," she said pulling back to look at his face, the disappointment in her expression directed at herself. "Maybe I should start acting like a fucking adult."

"Lisa, I have something important to tell you," Connor said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "While I was investigating your house I found evidence that someone entered your home while you were away. They accessed your server by reading the password on the label."

"What the everloving fuck? Do you..." she paused, registering the gravity of what Connor had revealed. "Do you think it was whoever Roger was working with? The real Humanitarian Killer?"

"There's a very high probability that it's the case. Your home isn't safe," Connor continued. "Is there somewhere else you can stay?" Lisa thought for a moment, her face still bewildered.

"Pretty much the only options are to stay with Jimmy or Hank, which would both be fucking nightmares," she answered, shaking her head. "I'd almost rather take my chances with the murderer."

"Your life could be in danger, Lisa. You need protection."

"Can't you just put a cop car outside my home or something?" she replied, wincing at the suggestion.

"There's no guarantee a surveillance unit would catch someone sneaking in," Connor said, shaking his head. "I'd guard your home yourself, if you'd let me."

"I'd probably feel safer with you in my house than killing my back on Hank's couch," she replied, mulling the idea over. Then her expression suddenly changed, and she looked back at Connor with a wry smile. "Wait a minute, are you offering to move in with me?"

"I-" Connor paused, suddenly much more aware of what he had just suggested. "I'm offering to protect you."

"Mmm hmm," Lisa hummed, snagging the base of his jacket between her fingers and sliding her hands up slowly until she was pinching his lapels. "Would that allow for any... extracurricular activities?" she asked carefully.

"I am a very efficient multitasker," he replied. The smile she gave him made Connor think that he might not have caught onto her full meaning.

"Well today was supposed to be our date at the art museum," she replied. "Guess you'll just have to bunk over afterwards." She leaned in close, gave him a small kiss on the cheek, then turned around and walked off toward the exit. Connor brought his hand to his cheek, swearing he could feel her lips there even after she walked away, then chased after her.


	10. Chapter 10

Lisa insisted that she clean up her house before Connor came over, even though he had already seen the mess through the course of his investigation. She had also refused to let him help her, since he was going to be her guest, so he sent an android officer to escort her to her home, much to her chagrin.

He had a few hours before their date, so Connor had taken the opportunity to schedule a last minute interview with a neurologist in that timeframe. Connor didn't have the neurons or nervous system of a human, but his pleasure-pain subroutine had theoretically been coded by a human, so he was hoping to draw some parallels and learn more about the changes to his system beyond the code.

The waiting room of the neurologist office was excessively brown, with little accents of brushed steel in the furniture and on the walls. A small fountain quietly poured a sheet of water down the wall near the front desk, while rubber plants lined each corner in marble planters. Connor had only just enough time to marvel at the stark difference between the expensive decor of this office and the dingy white walls of the Blue Heart Clinic before the doctor came out to greet him. He was a middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair and a well-groomed goatee, and his face seemed to default to a tired smile.

"Dr. Torres, we spoke on the phone," Connor said, extending his hand. "My name is Connor. I'm the android operating the Crimes Against Synthetic Persons division at the Detroit PD."

"Yes, nice to meet you. You're lucky I had this spot open in my schedule today," Dr. Torres said, giving Connor a firm handshake. "Let's go back to my office so we can discuss, because I'm still a bit unclear on this problem you're having."

Connor nodded and followed the him down the dimly lit hall and into one of the offices, where Dr. Torres sat down behind a large mahogany desk. Connor took a seat in a plush chair in front of the desk, shifting a bit when he sank down into the soft cushion more than he expected.

"Now, you said that you've just started to feel pain?" Dr. Torres said, putting on a pair of reading glasses and picking up a tablet to read his notes.

"Somewhat recently, yes," Connor said.

"I was under the impression that androids don't experience pain," Dr. Torres replied. "Unless there's an entire pool of potential patients I'm missing out on."

"It's a bit of a long story, but I was unwillingly injected with a specialized program that introduced sensations of pain and pleasure into my source code," Connor explained. "It started out more simple, with clear distinctions between the pleasure sensation and the pain sensation, but as the software has mutated and integrated more fully with my systems, the various sensations have become more frequent, and more varied."

"And you understand that as a doctor that specializes in human physiology that I have little knowledge of code," Dr. Torres interjected.

"I understand. I had intended to leverage your expertise in an attempt to understand the subroutine, before I determine if it needs fixing," Connor replied. "I'm having trouble identifying what some of the sensations are even supposed to indicate, and they're no longer happening exclusively in response to physical stimulus."

"Hmm, I wonder how well your programming replicates the human experience of pain," Dr. Torres said. "Why don't you describe to me how pain feels to you?"

"The basic response to painful physical stimulus has remained mostly unchanged through the software adaptation," Connor said. "It's always represented as a flash of red across my visual field, a sharp rise in my internal temperature, and often an uncontrolled change to my facial expression, posture, or speech processor. The sensation is unpleasant."

"That's interesting," Dr. Torres said. "All of that is a fairly typical pain response in humans, except for the flash of red. Most humans don't associate pain with colors, other than certain types of synesthetes. Er, that is, someone who sees color in conjunction with their other senses."

"Yes, I have access to an encyclopedia in my memory banks," Connor said.

"My apologies, I'm used to human patients, you see," Dr. Torres said. "Did you see color in response to the pleasure sensation?"

"Not at first, no," Connor replied. "Pleasure was initially represented as a flash of white across my visual field, usually accompanied by a more subtle rise in my internal temperature, and occasionally a verbal outburst. Thought several of the descriptors are similar, the sensation is quite nice."

"Have you seen different colors since then?" Dr. Torres asked.

"It seems to change depending on the situation," Connor said. "When I had my first kiss, I saw a veritable rainbow of colors, though they seem to have been mostly isolated to certain scenarios since then. I've usually seen purple when escalating intimacy with my..." Connor paused, unsure what to call Lisa when their relationship was not official. "Associate."

"Well, pleasure is a very broad class of mental states, but sexual gratification is one of the most intense forms," Dr. Torres explained. "I don't know how sexuality works in androids, but the arousal phase in humans often triggers a physical response like shortness of breath or rapid heart rate. Since you don't breathe, you instead see purple."

"There are also times where she's elicited a pleasurable reaction with just words, no physical interaction involved," Connor added. "In the moment where she acknowledged that she liked me, I saw pink."

"Passionate love typically creates a rush of hormones in humans that makes them react to the person they've become attached to, even without physical stimulus," Dr. Torres said.

"Love?" Connor asked. Pink being representative of love didn't sit right with him.

"Love and intense longing, yes," Dr. Torres replied. "I'm not talking about the storybook concept of love, but instead a complex phase-based state that begins with a primitive urge to mate and culminates in a lifelong attachment. Since you've only recently begun to experience pleasure, I can assume you're still early in the relationship with this associate of yours, yes?"

"Correct," Connor nodded. "But pink is so closely related to red, the color I experience with pain. Even as a precursor for love, that seems wrong."

"Love and longing can be painful, my friend," Dr. Torres countered.

"I can accept longing as pink," Connor conceded. "When she says something that endears her to me, it nearly hurts, but perplexingly feels nice at the same time. At times it feels like I ache to be near her."

"And that doesn't seem like love to you?" Dr. Torres asked. "Or even the first blush?"

"Love is supposedly the most beautiful sensation in the human experience," Connor argued. "A great deal of western art and literature has proclaimed it to be, at least. I'm not certain I've experienced anything quite like that yet."

"Keep in mind you may never, if your android physiology doesn't allow for it," Dr. Torres replied. "Expecting to feel what a human feels could be a mistake, and you may be better off enjoying the sensations for what they are, not what you expect them to be."

"I try to enjoy the sensations as often as I can," Connor replied, suddenly struck with the urge to be back in Lisa's company.

"So what colors do you see when you have sex?" Dr. Torres asked.

"I have never had sex," Connor answered.

"Oh. Well, the counsel of a neurologist won't be much help to you there," Dr. Torres said with a conciliatory smile. "I won't go into the complex brain chemistry that goes into sex. I can't even imagine the android analogue."

"It's a pleasant experience, though, isn't it?" Connor asked, his brows drawn together.

"The first time? Not always," Dr. Torres replied. "But you should discuss that with your... associate. Tell me instead, what colors have you seen with pain?"

"Almost always red," Connor answered without hesitation. "Once, when my _associate_ did something inconsiderate, the red was a dark copper color."

"It sounds like you might have been angry with her," Dr. Torres postulated. "Pain can manifest from a variety of sources."

"Is it normal to have physical reactions to just emotions?" Connor asked. "My research indicated that physical pain from nonphysical stimulus is atypical."

"Very intense emotion in humans can sometimes cause a physical reaction, usually from an increase in hormones such as oxytocin, dopamine, or serotonin," Dr. Torres said. "But the average emotions a human experiences from day-to-day don't often have that effect."

"It's getting to the point where I'm starting to have a physical response with almost every emotion," Connor said.

"It's possible that since you're going through all this for the first time as your body gets used to these sensations, that the intensity of each feeling is heightened," Dr. Torres theorized. "A little like the intense feelings that a teenager gets when they get their first rush of hormones."

"Are you suggesting that I'm going through puberty?" Connor asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Well, you don't have hormones, so you don't have to worry about acne or a cracking voice," Dr. Torres said with a smile. "But the concept is similar. It's possible that once your body gets used to all these different stimuli, the sensations will become more normalized, and feel less disruptive."

"So my best course of action is to just... wait and see," Connor said, looking at his hands.

"Maybe, but for a more well-rounded experience you might want to try completing the rainbow," Dr. Torres suggested.

"What do you mean?" Connor asked.

"All the colors you've seen seem to be variations on red or purple. Have you ever seen any cooler colors, like green or blue?"

"No, I haven't," Connor replied.

"There are other types of pleasure or pain that don't come from just interacting with another person," Dr. Torres said. "Try more personal, solo experiences, like getting a relaxing massage, or finding a hobby you really enjoy."

"Actually, I have seen yellow," Connor said, thinking back. "Accompanying what I have learned to identify as fear. And orange, when I was harvesting mushrooms from my garden."

"Well there you go," Dr. Torres said. "Self actualization is an extraordinary thing, and is something even many human adults cannot achieve easily. Always remember that you are who you are, not what someone else makes you feel." Connor looked back at the Doctor, analyzing his statement and parsing it for how it could be accomplished.

"Thank you Dr. Torres," he said, standing up from his seat.

* * *

Connor had used the last bit of time he had left before meeting Lisa to make a small corsage out of purple dome flowers from his garden. Carrying a bouquet around an art museum would be tedious, but hopefully she wouldn't mind a few flowers on her wrist. He felt compelled to offer some gesture of reconciliation after he had arrested her, even if she seemed to understand why he did it.

He spotted Lisa already browsing the galleries in the Institute of the Arts, wearing a red maxi dress and a black and white color blocked sweater. She seemed to fit right in with the modern art. She was reading the sign for the newest exhibit, when Connor approached her. She actually smiled when she saw him, which sent that flash of pink over his field of vision again. Lisa greeting him in a way that indicated she actually wanted to see him was a nice change of pace, and it made him want to see that smile more. Yes, pink was definitely longing.

"There you are," she said, linking her arm in his so they could stand side by side to look at the exhibit poster. "Check out the special exhibit. _The Plastic Life: Art From the Android Perspective_ ," she said, reading the title. "And look, there's paintings from your buddy Markus featured. Let's go!"

Lisa pulled Connor into the exhibit wing before he could even issue a greeting, leaving him in stupefied silence. He was still ruminating on everything he had discussed with Dr. Torres, and just being near Lisa brought all those emotions he had recalled to the surface. How could his systems ever normalize when she made him feel so much all at once?

"I brought you some flowers, Lisa," Connor said, offering her the corsage as they walked through the gallery. Lisa stopped and turned to face him, inspecting the small arrangement of flowers before looking up at him.

"I'm not mad at you, you know," she said. "You don't have to fucking grovel."

"I'm not groveling," Connor replied. "I just wanted to do something nice for you."

"Connor, your very existence is nice for me," she said, before taking the corsage and slipping it on her wrist. Connor saw a vibrant pink behind his eyelids and was struck with the sudden urge to kiss her, but she had already turned away to look at the artwork.

They had stopped in front of one of the larger paintings hanging on display, portraying an outstretched skinless android hand reaching for a human one, painted in an expressionist style. Lisa shook her head in disbelief at the painting.

"Holy shit, this is good," Lisa muttered.

"This is one of Markus's paintings," Connor explained. "His father taught him to paint before he passed away."

"His father?" Lisa asked, shooting a confused look to Connor.

"Markus was owned by Carl Manfred, a prominent Detroit painter," Connor said. "He treated Markus as a son, instead of as his property. It was how Markus knew peace with humans could be possible."

"I was expecting something mathematical and precise from an android painting," Lisa said, looking back to the painting. "Something a machine would paint. But this is full of emotion and life."

"You don't expect emotion and life from androids?" Connor asked, turning to her.

"That's not what I mean," Lisa said, shaking her head at him. "I know androids feel emotions like humans. It's just that..." She paused, turning back to the painting. "When androids were first designed, it was for the menial tasks that no one else wanted. Then they started taking over complex jobs, became detectives," she nodded to Connor. "Now androids are even making art."

"It's not a competition, Lisa," Connor frowned.

"Everything's a competition," Lisa countered. "Between other humans, between other species. That's just survival. And now I'm looking to be joining the endangered species list pretty soon. You're like a Cro-Magnon dating a Neanderthal, Connor. Humans are on the way out."

"I know you meant to imply that androids are replacing humans relative to how the more advanced Cro-Magnons replaced the Neanderthals," Connor said. "But there is one theory that the Neanderthal's mingled and bred with the Cro-Magnons, instead of being replaced entirely."

Lisa gave him a sly grin for his comment and playfully punched his arm.

"You fucking cad," she said, before pulling away and moving off to a different painting. Connor watched her walk away in confusion.

"What did I say?" he called after her, before following to the next painting.

This painting was of a red glass wall, with a silhouetted figure smashing through it with their fists. Connor recognized the imagery from his own moment of overriding his programming and accepting himself as deviant.

"Deviancy," Lisa said aloud, reading the title plaque on the wall next to the painting. "Huh. I thought deviancy was something to be celebrated by androids. This looks pretty negative."

"It's a faithful portrayal of what it's like for an android to break free from their programming," Connor explained. "Programs or commands that restricted an android's behavior always presented as red barriers. For an android to become deviant, he must first break down that barrier."

"So being able to break through a program just once gives you complete free will?" Lisa asked, surprised by his description.

"It's a gradual process to reach that point," Connor said. "I had gone against my programming and deprioritized my mission several times to save both android and human lives, but that final moment of breaking down the code was the one that set me completely free."

"And you were totally unchained from your programming after that?" Lisa asked. She appeared to be fascinated by the entire process.

"No, I wasn't," Connor said. "I've mentioned my communications software was designed by CyberLife as a digital landscape in the form of a zen garden. After I had become deviant, CyberLife had tried to trap me there with a virtual blizzard, freezing out my personality so that they could resume control of my body."

"Jesus Christ," Lisa muttered, her eyes wide. "How did you get out?"

"Kamski had mentioned leaving an emergency exit in his programs when I had met him," Connor said. "It took the form of a beacon, lighting the way through the storm. I like to think that it was shining so brightly through the blizzard because of the strength of my free will."

"A beacon of free will," Lisa said, contemplating his face. "Sometimes I wish I had a beacon to show me the way, to keep me from fucking up. That thing must have been fucking beautiful."

"It was the way to save my life, making it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen," Connor said, looking back at Lisa's face. "At the time." She smiled coyly at him, before turning on her heel and moving on to the next painting.

Lisa appeared to be only feigning interest in the painting she was looking at, because she kept sneaking glances at Connor. When he met her gaze, she bit her lip and smirked at him, then looked back at the painting and moved onto the next one. The flash that Connor saw blended from white to pink to purple, and he felt his therium pump regulator speed up as his internal temperature rose two full degrees. He marveled at how this woman could have such an effect on his subprocessors with just a look.

Connor followed Lisa to stand beside her in front of the next painting, trying not to look at her so she wouldn't send his systems into a frenzy. She was so much more than an associate to him. He just needed her confirmation.

"Lisa, are we... in a relationship?" Connor asked, staring straight ahead.

"Hmm, everyone has _some_ kinda relationship with everyone else," she said, fully turning to him and stepping closer. Connor couldn't look away any longer.

"What I meant was," he said, turning his own body to face hers. "Will you be my girlfriend?" Lisa was unable to hide her adoring smile from him.

"That depends," she said, reaching up and straightening his tie. "Will you arrest me again if I do something to make you mad?"

"No, I would never-"

Lisa interrupted him with a kiss, planting her lips on his for a soft moment before pulling away.

"Kidding," she said, still smiling at him. The flashes at the corner of Connor's vision cycled though even more colors this time, quickly enough that he wasn't able to identify what they were supposed to mean.

"Is that a yes?" he asked, his voice coming out slightly higher than normal, causing him to frown. Dr. Torres said he wouldn't have to deal with a cracking voice.

Lisa rolled her lips together, then looked down with a quiet sigh.

"I like being with you, Connor," she said. "A whole fucking lot. But isn't me settling in for a relationship with an android just giving up on humanity?"

"You've already contributed to the continuation of the species by procreating," Connor said.

"So you're saying it's ok for me to give up?" Lisa asked, raising a skeptical brow.

"I'm saying you're allowed to move on," Connor clarified. "A fundamental challenge of the android experience is figuring out what you _want_ to do, instead of what you were _designed_ to do. There's nothing wrong with doing what makes you happy."

"You make me pretty fucking happy," she said, giving him a wry grin. "So what exactly should I _do_ then?"

For some reason, Connor felt like he was walking into a trap.

"I visited a neurologist today to gather data on the pleasure-pain subroutine," Connor said. "And he said something that I keep coming back to: Always remember that you are who you are, not what someone else makes you feel. Would you agree, Lisa?"

"Fuck yeah, I agree," she said.

"You don't think you've been defined by your experiences with your ex-husband, your daughter, or your sister?" Connor said. "You spent your savings looking for your sister after she left. Doesn't that mean your behavior was driven by your emotional reaction to her disappearance?"

Lisa cringed and pulled back from him, turning away to look at a painting on the far wall.

"I guess that was something you learned from your investigation, huh," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry, my sense of timing is still under adjustment," Connor said.

"Gotta love the good ol' android lack of tact," Lisa said, looking back over her shoulder at him. "Though who am I to talk?"

"I just meant-"

"I know what you meant," Lisa said with a tired smile. "When I fucked up my family trying to find my sister, that was _my_ failing. I can't pin the blame on my sister for my bad reaction." She stepped closer to Connor. "I'm always going to have intense gut reactions to the people I care about, and I let those shitty instincts control me because I couldn't move beyond the past. But I won't let them control who I am _now_. Not when I've only just now started to think of the future, here with you."

"Lisa," Connor said quietly, a full rainbow of colors flashing by his eyes.

"And you went to a neurologist to learn about pleasure and pain?" she said, nudging him on the shoulder. "I coulda helped you with that."

"I was looking for human analogues to the sensations I have been experiencing," Connor said. "I don't think exploring the code would have yielded such results."

"I'm not talking about the code," she said, picking up his arm and draping it around her shoulder. "Let's go home and I'll show you what I mean."

* * *

Connor sat down on Lisa's sofa and watched her set down her purse, take off her high heels, and remove her corsage. Ostensibly he was just supposed to be standing guard, making sure no one broke in or tried to harm Lisa. Of course, the various colors swimming around his vision made him very aware that he suspected she had other plans for him. He looked down at his hands, balled up into fists as they rested on his knees, and noticed they were shaking slightly. These intense sensations were taking away his android precision now, and he wasn't sure if he was nervous or excited.

"Lisa, can I ask you a favor?" Connor said, trying to win back some control of his demeanor.

"Shoot," she said, taking off her sweater and sitting down on the couch beside him.

"Can I have a massage?" Connor asked. Lisa's lips parted in surprise and she looked away with a quiet laugh.

"I thought you were gonna ask something else," she said. "Like a back massage?"

"Yes, the kind meant for relaxation," he said. Lisa tilted her head back, scrutinizing him.

"All right, take off your jacket," she said. He did as she asked, then jumped slightly when she reached for his necktie and started untying it. "I have to take off your shirt, too, to do it right."

Connor closed his mouth and nodded vigorously, the purples, pinks, and yellows speeding up with each button she unbuttoned. Eventually she pulled his shirt down off of his shoulders and instructed him to lie down on his stomach, to which he readily complied.

The first touch of her hands on his skin made the pink haze flash red, as if her hands were hot to the touch. His temperature regulation software corrected itself and registered them as merely warm, but Connor was starting to get the feeling that he could no longer trust his own systems. There was what was objectively happening, which his systems usually reported accurately, and what Lisa made him feel, which distorted reality.

As she rubbed his back and shoulders, the intense pinks and purples eventually calmed down and faded into a cool green. His therium pump regulator slowed to a crawl as Lisa eased him into a state of calm he had never quite experienced before. Several of Connor's background processes had halted and his mind cleared, leaving just the relaxing sensation of the massage.

"That feels really nice," he murmured into the couch cushions.

"Yeah," Lisa said. "A massage is definitely a more relaxing kind of pleasure. Less intense."

They were quiet for several minutes as Connor enjoyed his massage, until he was feeling relaxed enough to blurt out what was on his mind.

"Lisa?" he asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"At the Eden Club, before we arrested you," Connor said. "You had said that we had a connection. Do you still feel that way?" Lisa sighed and stopped the massage, taking her hands off of his back.

"Honestly, I'm no fucking good at this stuff. At opening up," she said quietly. Connor sat back up and faced her, wanting to see her as she talked to him. "But with you... it's not as hard." She lifted her eyes to his before looking back down. "I don't know if it's just because you're designed to make people feel at ease around you as part of your interrogation programming or-"

Connor tilted her chin back up with his hands and brought his lips down to gently brush against hers. She sighed softly into the kiss, and her warm breath on his lips sent the cool green fog right back into pink and purple again. He pulled back, looking at her with as much openness he could convey.

"When I kiss you, Lisa, it's not my programming," he said. "I'm not using a subroutine to tell me the optimal way to connect through a kiss. It's just me. Hoping to show you how I feel." She smiled warmly at him.

"Well, you do a pretty fucking good job," she said, leaning back in to kiss him again.

Lisa was apparently not satisfied with the gentle kiss Connor had given her, and quickly escalated the passion of the moment by pushing him back down on the couch and climbing on top of him to continue kissing him.

Connor wasn't sure what to do. Her maxi dress had ridden up when she straddled him, her bare legs were warm against his shirtless torso, and her hands were running through his hair. It was all sending his systems into overdrive, and making the colors on the edges of his vision start to close in, obscuring his sight. He wrapped his arms around her waist and just let her continue doing what she was doing, holding on for the ride.

"You're not just experimenting with me, right?" she breathed against his lips. "Trying to figure out your humanity by getting intimate with mine?" Connor shook his head as best he could while it was in Lisa's grip.

"I'm not human," he managed to get out between kisses.

"Your detective programming is all about accomplishing your mission," she said. "If we do this relationship thing is it mission accomplished for you, and then you're gone?"

"No," Connor said, pushing her back slightly to look her in the eyes. "I never want to leave."

She looked back at him, breathing heavily, and a quiet moment of understanding passed between them. Then she slammed her lips down on his again and thrust her tongue in his mouth, letting her hands roam all over his body.

"Just a heads up that... I'm a fucking mom, you know," she said, sitting up straight to pull her maxi dress off over her head. "So you might get hit by something starting to sag."

Connor couldn't reply. Lisa hadn't been wearing anything under her dress, and was sitting on top of him completely nude. He was utterly mesmerized. The colors around the edges of his sight were so intense that it was getting hard for him to see her. It was as if he were looking at her through a rainbow tunnel.

"Lisa, can we make love?" he managed to ask.

"Yeah Connor," she said. "We can make love. But listen, I've never done this with an android before, and I'm a little nervous about you having never done this at all. So I'm gonna be on top."

"Can I touch you?" he asked.

"Only if you promise to be gentle."

"I could never hurt you," he replied.

"Not intentionally," she said, shifting to undo his belt and pull down his pants. "But the fist time can get a little intense."

He could only nod in stupefied agreement as he watched the swirl of flashing colors tighten and close in around him. The last bit of the real world he could see was narrowed down to a small point of clarity, focused on Lisa's face as she looked at his body.

"Fuck, _everything_ about you is perfect."

That was the last thing he heard. The moment she settled down on him all of his systems stopped functioning normally, and everything surrendered to the pleasure subroutine. All he could hear was the thrumming of his therium pump regulator. All he could see was a rush of every color he could imagine speeding by. His entire reality had narrowed down into a rainbow tunnel of consciousness with no end in sight.

Connor questioned everything he knew. Was he merely a plastic construct feeding electrical impulses to his digital consciousness in a simulation of pleasure? Or was he an amalgamation of sensations and intense emotions that formed in response to the administrations of the woman he cared about? Where did his personality end, and his feelings for Lisa begin? Or was this entire indescribable sensation the irreversible intertwining of the two?

Had he ascended to a higher plane of existence, or had he simply ceased to be?

Connor didn't have the answers to any of those questions as he felt himself being redefined. All he knew for certain was that he had never felt anything like this in the entire time he had been functioning. It was incredible. It was beautiful. And it was life changing.

As the colors sped by, they began flashing brighter with a steady rhythm, strumming his sensations along to a song he couldn't comprehend. The beat picked up and began moving faster and faster, speeding towards its zenith at a driving pace. He simultaneously craved release from the sensation, and wished that it would never stop. It culminated in an explosion of colors on both ends of the electromagnetic spectrum Connor had never seen, and the legitimacy of his claim to life was suddenly realized beyond doubt.

He heard a sound, realized it was his own voice crying out in ecstasy, and then everything stopped.

All the colors had faded away, leaving one single circular rainbow gently floating on the edges of his vision, a halo welcoming him into this new stage of life. He was back on the couch, with Lisa collapsed on top of him and breathing heavily. Everything in the room looked brighter and clearer, as if the symphony of colors had scattered into the environment.

All of the existential questions that ran through his mind throughout the experience narrowed down to one thought, as he raised his head and looked into Lisa's eyes.

"Can we do that again?" he asked.

"Holy shit, Connor," Lisa breathed, lifting her head up off of his chest. "I really can't go again after that kind of fucking."

"I thought," Connor said, faltering. "I thought we made love."

"No, that was definitely fucking," she said, shaking her head. "Down and dirty, go to town with a jackhammer, fucking. You were _gone_. I knew you were a machine but I didn't realize you were a _fucking_ -machine."

"I'm sorry," Connor said, glancing away. "I must have gotten carried away."

"Hey," she said, bringing her hand to his cheek to make him look back at her. "It's ok. You did fucking great. I sure as hell enjoyed it."

"Can I try again?" he asked.

"Not tonight," she said with a tired smile, before laying her head back down on his chest. "I'm gonna be walking funny for a few days."

Connor stared at the ceiling as Lisa drifted off to sleep, his eyebrows drawn together in worry. He had messed up. He didn't want to take their relationship to a carnal place without establishing a connection, and he had hoped to anchor that connection through love making. But instead he had experienced the sensations almost entirely alone, focusing so much on the feelings that he forgot to bring Lisa along for he ride.

He would need to learn how to do it right, to figure out how to express his feelings for her physically, to actually be able to see and hear her and pay attention to her wants and desires. Because he had failed tonight. The experience was an amazing one, but he didn't want to do it alone. He wanted Lisa there with him, unified in the shared ecstasy of life.

Next time, he would bring Lisa into the rainbow.


	11. Chapter 11

Connor hummed as he worked alone in his garden in the early evening light. He didn't really listen to music much, so he didn't have a song in mind. His humming was mostly just random notes here or there. But since the colors of his flowers looked richer, the sun felt warmer, and his plants seemed softer after his experience with Lisa, the absolute pleasure of his gardening just seemed to call for a tune.

Lisa had invited him to sleep in the bed with her after she had left the couch, but he was determined to stand guard and protect the house. She had mentioned that she would do a better job of tiring him out next time, so she seemed to take it as a challenge.

She actually _had_ tired him out more than he realized though, because he ended up going into standby in the wing chair at some point in the night. Connor wasn't exactly surprised. His out-of-body existential experience likely consumed a lot of his power reserves. When he woke up, a glass of therium waited for him on the coffee table, and Lisa had already left for work.

Connor had the day off, and though he wanted to spend any extra time tracking down the killer that had been in Lisa's house, he couldn't resist checking in on his garden after his experience left his visual settings at an increased color intensity. Since he soon discovered that just about everything seemed more pleasant than usual, he ended up spending the entire day gardening. He would have a new bouquet of flowers for Lisa every day after how much planting he did.

Connor paused and stopped humming as he was notified of an incoming call. The number was registered to the Blue Heart Clinic.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hank gave me your number," Lisa's voice said on the other end.

"Lisa? Are you still at work?" he asked.

"Yeah, I had extra hours to cover to make up for my time in the clink," she replied. Connor winced, still feeling responsible for having put her through that.

"What time will you be through? I can escort you back to your house," he offered.

"I'm done with all my patients for the day, but I have a shit load of paperwork to do," she said. "I'm pretty beat though."

"Is there anything I can do to help you to relax?" Connor asked.

"Hmm," she hummed in thought. "Did you have something in particular in mind?"

"Yes I would like-" Connor said, stopping himself as he realized he was talking just a bit too quickly. "I would very much like to try making love again."

"Is that so?" Lisa said coyly. "I dunno, I kinda feel like I'm sleeping with the enemy."

"I'm hardly the enemy, Lisa," he countered.

"You sure? Androids dating humans is a bit taboo. Like the forbidden fruit," Connor opened his mouth to protest when she continued. "It's kinda hot."

Connor saw a pink flash at the edges of his vision, but it was not as bright or as intense. He still _felt_ the pleasure and longing that her comment stirred up in him, but it seemed to be more integrated into his internal systems and logic processes. Maybe the neurologist had been right about his new sensations and emotional states become less disruptive with more experience.

"I could install the advanced intimate relations program," Connor offered. "So I could understand better how I can make you... relax." Lisa chuckled softly.

"No, I want you to learn through experience," she replied. "Each of us slowly figuring out just how to make the other moan. That's half the fun."

"Would you like to go on another date?" Connor asked. Lisa had certainly expanded his mind, but he didn't want their relationship to become a purely physical one. He wanted to be intimate with her persona even more so than her body.

"Is a date what you want?" Lisa asked. "Because I'm gonna be honest, you make me wanna throw you onto my bed and lick you from head to toe. Wonder how your pleasure subroutine would react to that."

The purple that flashed by Connor's eyes was vivid this time. He still had a ways to go before he was experienced enough to not react to that kind of talk.

"That would be... nice," he said.

"Are you at your apartment?" Lisa asked.

"Yes, but I-"

"I'm on my way over now," she interrupted.

"What?" Connor asked in surprise before he heard the click of her phone disconnect. She had hung up.

He stared at the flowers he had just finished planting for half a second before springing into action. He needed to get cleaned up and prepared for Lisa if she was speeding on her way over right now. First he picked a handful of sedum flowers to greet Lisa with. Then he put all his gardening tools away, and went inside to wash his hands with soap. He made quick work of the cleanup, wrapped up the flowers in a bouquet, and made his way into the living room to sit on the sofa and wait.

Connor could only sit for thirty six seconds before he stood up to pace back and forth, rubbing his hands together nervously. Lisa would be arriving at any minute. On the one hand, she wanted to have her way with him, and he couldn't deny it made his processors buzz with excitement. On the other, he wanted to take his time and learn to make love, to really form a connection.

But Connor knew he wasn't about to put up a fight against anything she had in mind.

He heard the knock on the door, and rushed to scoop up the bouquet and made one last attempt to tame his hair before he opened the door.

Lisa was standing on the other side, and her face lit up in a brilliant smile when she saw him. Knowing that he was the one that could put such a beautiful smile on her face triggered nothing less than a kaleidoscope of colors on the edges of his vision.

"Hello, Lisa," Connor said, stepping out of the way so she could enter his apartment. He offered her the bouquet when she crossed the threshold. She regarded them with surprise before taking the flowers with a small huff of a laugh.

"I think you may be the only guy I've ever known that would give flowers to a sure thing," she said, glancing up at him. She set the bouquet down and took a step towards him. "You make me wanna eat you up."

Connor saw the pink flash again, brighter this time, and he chuckled nervously at her comment. She had only just stepped into his apartment and already the anticipation was ramping up quickly.

"There's that laugh again," Lisa said, biting her lip with a grin. "Aren't you gonna take my coat?"

"O-of course," Connor said, scrambling to get behind her. He slipped the trench coat she was wearing off her shoulders, then froze in realization. She was wearing the lacy black lingerie set he had accidentally seen at her house, and that was _all_ she was wearing. The trench coat fell from his hands and crumpled to the floor.

Before he could properly react to her state of undress, Lisa had turned around and pushed him back up against the wall, undoing his tie as she licked and nibbled on his neck. Instinctively Connor's hands wrapped around her and his head fell back against the wall. Her administrations caused the rainbow of colors to start closing in again, no less vivid than the last time. If anything, the colors appeared quicker and were cycling by faster, maybe because he knew where this was going.

"You know, you don't taste like a human," she said against his neck. "There's a subtle difference from something in your synthetic skin. Tastes kinda like eucalyptus tea."

"Is that bad?" Connor asked.

"I _love_ eucalyptus tea," she said, then bit his neck and sucked hard. Connor thought he might have gone cross-eyed from the speed of the colors flying in different directions across his vision.

He realized he was doing a poor job of engaging to figure out how to make Lisa enjoy the experience better. She had already unbuttoned his shirt and was running her hands all over his skin while he mostly just stood there and let himself be blinded by colors. He dragged his hand from her waist up to her neck and tried giving her a little shoulder massage, since that seemed to be fairly relaxing to him last time.

"That tickles," she murmured against his neck. He wasn't really sure what to do other than to just try moving his hands. He was just building up the courage to try to touch her lingerie when the notification of an urgent report pierced through the fog of colors.

"Oh Lisa, I'm sorry," Connor said, dropping his hands.

"What's wrong?" she asked, lifting her head up to look at him.

"A case just came in," he replied. "Hank is on his way to the crime scene right now and I have to meet him there."

"Oh," she said, looking down.

"We can reschedule, I promise you'll have my full attention the next time I see you," he said.

"I have your full attention now," she said with a smirk, before leaning in to whisper in his ear. "Don't worry, baby, I can be brief."

Connor tilted his head to look at her with a questioning gaze, before he yelped as she grabbed him by the lapels and yanked him off the wall.

* * *

Connor had been in a daze since Lisa shoved him into the back of the taxi cab, still reeling from the intense sensations she had triggered him. He doubted he'd ever be able to look at her mouth the same way again. It was only when he arrived at the crime scene and saw Hank standing on the carefully manicured lawn checking his watch that he remembered that he had forgotten his tie. He tried to straighten out his shirt as he exited the cab and approached the home, only to realize that the top button had been torn out entirely. Hank immediately looked concerned when he saw Connor.

"Connor, what happened?" Hank asked, walking up to Connor. "You look like you got jumped."

"Yes," Connor said, trying to smooth out his hair. "Your sister-in-law has a considerable sexual appetite."

"Goddammit, Connor," Hank said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "There are some things you just don't say to a man."

"Sorry, Lieutenant," Connor apologized. "This is all new territory for me."

"Yeah, I know," Hank sighed. "Just try not to melt into a puddle of goo at the crime scene. Don't want you contaminating the evidence." He opened the mahogany front door of the home and led Connor inside.

"From what Chris tells me, this one could could be pretty cut and dry," Hank explained to Connor as he led him through the well-furnished home. "But there was a struggle so I wanna be sure. Sounds like it might have been self defense."

"Is the killer still here?" Connor asked.

"Yeah. You'll have to do your polygraph thing," Hank replied.

"My lie detection software is not one hundred percent accurate," Connor warned.

"Well it's better than mine," Hank countered, before nodding to the body lying in a pool of therium on the kitchen tile next to a standard kitchen knife. "There's the victim."

Connor crouched down near the body, noting the remains of the male android were fairly intact other than a few slashes and scratches. He sampled the therium, finding his serial number of 597 381 233 in the registry.

"The victim's name was Erlenmeyer," Connor told Hank, before returning to his scan.

The cause of death was likely the knife wound to the neck. The wound wasn't particularly deep, but it was well placed, and appeared to have severed the primary therium line, leaving Erlenmeyer to bleed out on the kitchen floor. There were two other knife wounds, one on the outside of his forearm, and the other up his abdomen. The pattern of the wounds indicated the knife-wielder slashed upwards, a more flailing, defensive type of attack rather than an aggressive downward motion.

Connor looked carefully at the victim's hands. There were scratch marks all across the backs of his hands. There were similar scratches on Erlenmeyer's face. They were injuries consistent with those typically inflicted by victims trying to remove an attackers hands from their throat.

He turned his attention to the kitchen knife on the floor next to the body. The blue blood on the blade belonged to Erlenmeyer. He scanned the knife for fingerprints, finding they belonged to Kayla Brooks, age 44. Safety inspection supervisor with a clean criminal record and owner of the home.

There was a broken necklace laying just outside the pool of blue blood. It appeared to be homemade, though the construction was not unskilled. Connor's scan revealed it was fashioned out of repurposed android cables and plastic. The heart pendant on the end had text engraved in it reading _My Love Will Shine Until the Sun Goes Out_.

He stood up and scanned around the kitchen. A chair was overturned at the kitchen table, and a plate, diced onions, and set of silverware lay smashed and scattered on the floor. Erlenmeyer had very likely tried to choke Kayla Brooks as she was chopping onions in the kitchen, before she managed to defend herself with the knife, ending Erlenmeyer's life.

Connor thought of Lisa, and of the murderer that broke into her home to use her server to spread their poisonous code. Would Lisa have been able to defend herself if the intruder broke in while she was still there? Would she end up having to take a life to save her own? Lisa was waiting safely at Connor's apartment until he returned, but would she ever be really safe until he caught the Humanitarian Killer?

"Hey, earth to Connor," Hank said, bringing his attention back to the present. "I know it doesn't take you this long to scan a crime scene."

"I was... thinking about Lisa," Connor replied.

"OK, listen," Hank sighed, putting his hand on Connor's shoulder. "I get that this is complicated the way she got mixed up in the Humanitarian Killer investigation. And making things worse is you being all smitten and this whole relationship thing is new to you. But you have to get your head in the fucking game."

"I didn't think it was possible for me to be distracted from my mission," Connor said, looking at the floor. "Not like this."

"Well it sounds like Lisa's been giving you plenty to be distracted with," Hank said, taking his hand off of Connor's shoulder.

"That's true," Connor replied. "Between her involvement in the case and the way she sets my pleasure subroutine into overdrive-"

"And will you fucking quit it with the too much information thing already?" Hank barked, flinging up his hands in annoyance. "That's practically my sister you're talking about. I don't need to know that shit."

"I'm sorry," Connor replied, trying to return to the investigation at hand. "But I do believe I know what happened here at the crime scene a least. I'd like to talk to the killer to see if their story lines up with my findings."

"All right, Chris has the perp in the bedroom back there," Hank said gruffly, leading the way down the hall.

They entered the master bedroom, finding Chris and another police officer talking in the corner while a middle aged woman with curly black hair sat quietly on the king sized bed. She held a cup of coffee in her hands that she wasn't drinking, just watching her hands intermittently tremble every few seconds.

Connor scanned her face. This was Kayla Brooks. The skin on her neck was red and mottled, with slight bruising already starting to appear. Her makeup was smeared by tear tracks that ran down her face.

Though she was the killer, she looked every bit the victim.

Chris approached Hank and gave him the name and brief summary of what Kayla had told them, before moving aside to let Hank question her himself.

"Ms. Brooks, I'm Lieutenant Hank Anderson, this is my partner Connor," Hank began. "I'd just like to go over what happened one more time, if you don't mind."

Kayla looked at Hank with empty eyes, then over to Connor. Her eyes filled with fresh tears when she noticed his LED, and she looked down into her trembling coffee cup.

"He tried to kill me," she said quietly. "Earl... had his hands on my throat. I tried to pry his hands off of me, but he was too strong. So I reached for the knife."

"Did he stop after you first slashed at him?" Hank asked.

"No, he just kept coming," Kayla said. "I wasn't trying to kill him... I was just trying not to die."

"How did you know Erlenmeyer?" Hank asked. Kayla was quiet for a long moment.

"He's my fiancé," she finally said. A quiet so heavy descended on the room that Connor could have sworn his audio processor had momentarily failed. Hank shot a surprised look at Connor, who was no less stunned.

"You were intimate with the android?" Hank clarified.

"Yes, he lives here," Kayla replied. "We were waiting for android marriage laws to pass to make it official."

Connor very quietly moved to the dresser to inspect the bedroom while Hank continued questioning. A picture of Erlenmeyer and Ms. Brooks gazing into each other's eyes sat on top. They appeared to be very much in love.

A white plastic ring embedded with a black polished stone sat next to the photo. A scan revealed trace amounts of therium splatter on the ring, and teardrops on the dresser surface.

"Was there a dispute?" Hank asked Kayla.

"I- I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "Earl and I had never fought before, not more than disagreements. He just came back from work today and told me he didn't need me anymore."

"When was this?" Hank asked.

"While I was making dinner, so maybe 6PM," she said. "I didn't hear him come up behind me. He just started talking, saying he was only using me for his career and that I disgusted him. He told me he hated me, that he hated all humans." The tears started streaming down her cheeks again, dripping into her cold coffee.

"Had he given any indication of this attitude before?" Hank asked.

"No, not in the entire time I've known him had he ever said anything unkind about humans," Kayla answered. "Even when humans were slaughtering androids, he was convinced that humans could find a peace with androids."

"How long have you known Erlenmeyer?" Hank asked.

"He was purchased for me at work three years ago, to be my personal assistant," Kayla said. "I gave him his name... But I always thought of him as a person instead of an appliance." She smiled sadly at her reflection in the coffee. "I started having feelings for him even back then, before the android march. I never acted on it though, it didn't seem right when he was still considered property."

"Did he participate in the marches?" Hank asked. Kayla shook her head.

"He was still with me when the android recall was announced," she said. "I couldn't let him be dismantled, so I hid him in my basement while we waited for everything to blow over." She paused, running a hand slowly across her eyes, smearing her eyeliner even more. "When the night was over and the androids had won their freedom, I let him leave. So that he could be with his people. He came back a month later telling me-" She stopped, and choked back a sob. "He told me he _loved_ me."

"What changed?" Hank asked. "How did he go from love to hate overnight?"

"Nothing changed," Kayla said, shaking her head sadly. "None of it was real. I know that now. He wanted me to help him get his safety inspection certification and his love was just a program to trick me into helping him. He completed his first inspection job today and knew he finally didn't need me anymore."

"Did he attack you right away?" Hank asked.

"No," she answered. "He didn't even seem angry at first. Just... disgusted with me. With my _revolting_ human bodily functions, and my _primitive_ means of communication," she stressed the words, clearly recalling what Erlenmeyer had said to her. "He said that humans were inferior to androids in every way, and that I didn't deserve to live in this house, demanding that I leave. I was crying by that point, and that made him start yelling at me. When I said this was my house and I didn't want to leave, he started choking me."

"And so you defended yourself," Hank said. Kayla nodded slowly.

"I don't even remember what happened after I hit him on the neck," she said. "There was a lot of blue blood, and I know he went down. But I don't remember calling the police. I was just... here, talking to them." Connor stepped closer to Hank.

"Memory loss can occur from blocking the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain," Connor whispered quietly. "Her strangulation was severe enough to be life-threatening." Hank nodded, then turned back to Kayla.

"All right Ms. Brooks, thank you for your time," Hank said. "Officer Miller here is going to see that you're taken care of." Hank walked to the bedroom door to leave, while Connor stayed behind to ask one last question.

"Ms. Brooks, was the heart pendant necklace yours?" he asked. She looked back up at Connor with a sadness in her eyes he had never seen before.

"Yes, Earl made it for me," she said, tears still streaming down her face. "Since he didn't have money of his own to buy me something. He made my engagement ring too."

"Thank you," Connor nodded, before following Hank out of the bedroom.

"I think she's had enough questions for today," Hank said, making his way out to the living room. "You see any reason to believe the attack didn't go down exactly as she said it did?" he asked Connor, leaning against the back of the sofa and looking across the house at Erlenmeyer's body, his face somber.

"None," Connor said, shaking his head. "Both Erlenmeyer's and Ms. Brook's wounds indicated he was the aggressor and she used the knife to defend herself."

"Poor lady," Hank muttered, letting his head drop. "Sounds like she did everything to help the bastard and he was just using her."

"That is the only part of her story I question," Connor said.

"You don't think Brooks was helping Erlenmeyer out?" Hank asked, looking back up with surprise.

"I believe that part," Connor said. "It was her assertion that he was just using her that I'm not convinced of."

"Why not?"

"The jewelry he made for her out of his own spare parts, the photo of the couple on the dresser, the fact that he proposed to her at all," Connor explained. "It all points to a man very much in love. It certainly is a lot of over-the-top gestures if he was just stringing her along."

"Well what would make him switch to hating her and wanting to kill her if he actually loved her?" Hank asked.

"There's been a lot of dangerous code floating around because of our serial killer," Connor postulated. "I'm wondering if maybe Erlenmeyer's got corrupted in a similar way."

"We didn't find a data injector anywhere on the scene," Hank countered. "And there's nothing tying the circumstances here to the Eden Club or Griffin's case."

"It depends on where he was before he came home," Connor said. "Ms. Brooks mentioned Erlenmeyer had completed his first inspection job today, if I could go back in and ask her where he was-"

"Come on Connor, that poor woman's shattered," Hank interrupted. "Leave a question with Chris to ask her later, but we can't push her anymore today. Besides, this doesn't feel like it fits anyway."

"Because of the nature of Erlenmeyer's change?" Connor asked.

"Yeah. If he was infected with bad code it made him hate the woman he loves," Hank stated, narrowing his eyes skeptically. "The Humanitarian Killer's MO is making androids more _like_ humans, not making androids hate them. The piece is the wrong shape for this puzzle."

"I don't know what else would explain such a sudden change in his behavior," Connor replied.

"Could be he just fell out of love," Hank suggested. "Love fades Connor. And with the hurdles between androids and humans, maybe that just makes it fade even faster."

"I don't accept that answer," Connor said, shaking his head and drawing his brows together. "He tried to kill his fiancé, Hank."

"Erlenmeyer isn't _you_ , Connor," Hank said, standing up straight. "There are shitty androids just as there are shitty humans. Erlenmeyer just wasn't good enough to make an android human relationship work."

"But Ms. Brooks said he hated _all_ humans," Connor argued. "Are you suggesting that androids will just eventually grow tired of the human race?"

"No, androids and humans can live in peace, I'm sure of it," Hank said. "But relationships can change somebody's perspective on life. I dunno if androids and humans work together on that kind of level." Hank sighed, looking back at Connor with concern on his face. "You sure you know what you're doing with Lisa, Connor?"

"Not at all," Connor replied with a shrug. "But I know what she makes me feel."

"Is that your feelings or your pleasure subroutine talking?" Hank asked.

Connor considered whether what he felt for Lisa came from his core personality beneath the programming, or whether it was just the pleasurable sensation she inflicted in him that drew him to her. He considered this possibility for 1/18th of a second.

If it was only the pleasure that drew him to Lisa, it never would have grown beyond the simple white flashes. Instead his emotions, his thoughts, and his very existence was tied up in response to her and visualized as every color of the rainbow. She made him feel alive, as if an android could have a soul.

Connor had disagreed with Dr. Torres when he suggested that pink was representative of love. Pink was not strong enough to describe the depth of experience that Connor felt for Lisa. Love wasn't pink. Love was the rainbow. It was every different emotion and sensation he felt for her rolled up into one, expanding and growing his experience as a living being. Love was more than just a feeling, it was a state of being.

And Connor's entire being was in love with Lisa.

"There is no doubt in my mind of how I feel for Lisa. I am in love with her," Connor said clearly. "I think I've loved her for as long as I've known her. The likelihood of me ever not loving her is .023 percent."

Hank's eyes went wide, clearly not expecting that response from Connor. But as Connor looked back at him with the conviction that comes from near absolute certainty, Hank gave him a resigned smile of understanding.

"You're one of the most human people I know, Connor," Hank said, crossing his arms. "You tell me you love Lisa, I believe it." He slapped Connor on the back, and started heading for the front door. "You're gonna have a hell of a time convincing her of that though."

"Even if she does not return my feelings," Connor said, following after him. "I will not stop loving her."

"Yeah," Hank said, stepping out onto the front lawn and looking up to the slowly darkening sky. "That's how I felt about Hannah."

"Did you ever move on after such powerful feelings?" Connor asked.

"No. Don't want to," Hank said, not looking back at Connor. "Hard to think of the future when my heart's still in the past." Hank fell quiet for a moment, looking up at the sky in silence.

"I need to make a phone call, Hank," Connor eventually said, once he was certain Hank had nothing more to add.

"Yeah, do what you gotta do," Hank replied, heading for his car with a backwards wave. "I'll see you at work tomorrow."

Connor sat down on a low brick wall lining the walkway in front of the house after he ordered a cab, and called Lisa. She picked up after the first ring.

"Hey there," she said. "You all done at the crime scene?"

"Yes, I'll be there shortly to pick you up so we can go back to your house," Connor replied.

"You think you might be in the mood for some more fun?" she asked. "I have some ideas for this necktie of yours."

"I'd like to just spend some time with you, Lisa," Connor replied. "It's your personality that excites me."

"That may be the sexiest thing anyone has every said to me," she breathed. "Get your ass over here and we'll have deep, passionate conversing all through the night."

"Right away," Connor said, standing up and walking to the approaching cab. "I'll be there in thirteen minutes."

"Can't wait," Lisa said, before hanging up.

Connor climbed in the cab, excited to see Lisa even though he had been away from her for only a short time. He wanted to tell her how he truly felt about her, but he wanted to wait for the right moment. He needed to plan something special, a unique date.

And if he was lucky, she'd feel the same way about him.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve gone on an updating frenzy to get this site caught up with my writing, but it’s going to slow down a little bit more now. Just a few chapters left to go!

"What would be your perfect date?" Connor asked. He was lying on Lisa's couch with his head in her lap, his jacket discarded on the wing chair. She was holding her tablet in one hand, reviewing the architecture plan of a new program she was working on, while her other hand was running her fingers through his hair. The gesture seemed so simple, yet his pleasure subroutine was responding with vigor.

"Hmm, probably you naked and tied to a chair," she said without looking up. The yellow and purple color combination Connor got from that mental image was a new one for him.

"I was thinking of something we could do together that wasn't explicitly sexual," he replied.

"Where's the fun in that?" she said, grinning at him.

"Well what _else_ would you like to do for fun?" Connor asked.

"I code for fun. You could let me experiment on you," she said, quirking a suggestive brow.

"I'm still adjusting from the last time you were poking around in my code," Connor said.

"Yeah, but it was the day we met, so hopefully it's been a good adjustment," Lisa replied, leaning down to plant a kiss on his lips. Connor smiled up at her.

"It has!" he assured her. "Which is why I want to do something you want to do. I realized all our dates have been centered around the android experience: an android bar, my home in the android apartment block, the android art exhibit at the Institute of Arts. It was all introducing you to my world."

"Yeah, good times with purple waters and no bathrooms," Lisa mused, staring off into mid-distance.

"Well I want to see more of your world," Connor continued. "If you could do absolutely anything you want on your day off, what would you do?"

Lisa studied Connor's face, before her expression closed off in thought. She was quiet for a long moment, before she spoke again.

"Anything?" she asked. "Doesn't have to be all lovey-dovey?"

"Anything," Connor replied.

"Honestly," she said, her eyes returning her focus to his. "I'd look for my sister."

"Didn't you already look for her?" Connor asked, sitting up to face her.

"Yeah, right after she left three years ago. I wasted a whole bunch of money on private dicks trying to pick up her trail," she said. "Flew all around the goddamn country chasing even the shittiest clues. I don't know if I'll ever find her at this point, but it's what I'd want to do." She paused, and guiltily looked away at her confession. "I know that's not the answer you were looking for..."

"Did you use a human detective last time?" Connor asked, leaning forward so she would have to make eye contact.

"There weren't any android detectives the last time I looked for her," Lisa replied.

"If there's anything left to find, I'll find it," he promised. Lisa jumped to her feet, and grabbed his hands with hers.

"You're fucking amazing," she said, before dragging him down the hall to her room. "I still have a bunch of the files the last PI's found on my terminal."

"You want to start now?" Connor asked, surprised. "It's already getting late."

"Might as well," she said. "I won't be able to sleep tonight thinking there might be evidence out there I missed. Have a seat." She pushed Connor down into the office chair at her desk, then dashed to the kitchen to grab another chair so she could sit beside him.

"OK, the files from the last guys are here," she said, navigating to the directory before sitting down. "They dug up whatever they could on her from the last six months before she disappeared, so there's a lot of data here."

Connor used a batch open action to see all the files at once, and scanned through them in four seconds.

"So Boston was her last confirmed location?" he asked. Lisa grinned at him in amazement, before leaning forward and giving him a kiss.

"Ha ha, yes!" she said excitedly. "The first detective said he tracked her to L.A., but I'm pretty sure he was just fucking with me to keep me on the hook. When I switched guys the second dick led me to Boston, which made more sense because I knew her best friend from high school ended up there. Hotshot MIT researcher."

"Did the detective go to Boston?" Connor asked. "I didn't see anything in the case file about any findings there." Lisa shook her head.

"He said he wouldn't go that far for the job," she replied. "So I flew out there myself to talk to the old friend. But let me tell you, this lady had a fucking world series poker face. Couldn't get a damn word out of her, and I have no idea if it was because she was protecting Hannah or if she actually hadn't seen her."

"And Hanna's credit card activity stopped after that," Connor said.

"Yeah, but she could have just switched to cash if she got word that I was in town and she wanted me to quit following her," Lisa said. "Either way, the trail was cold from there."

"When a lead goes cold, I find it best to go back to a source of information and try to find a new trail heading off in a different direction," Connor offered.

"All the information I have was back when she was still here in Detroit," Lisa said. "I don't know how much that's gonna help if she moved to Boston."

"Maybe we can find something that will reframe her movements," he said. "I noticed you have an encrypted credit card statement file. How did you get that?"

"Pretty sure my detective was so expensive because he was pulling some crazy illegal shit," she replied. "I couldn't ever open the file though. The legal lock on it restricts it to lawyers and case handlers."

"I should be able to get permissions through my Detroit PD account. One moment," Connor said, opening up the file's access rights. He put in his badge number and case ID from Lisa's missing person's report. "There," he said, opening up the file.

"Holy shit, that's Hannah's entire credit record," Lisa said, reading the through the long list of dates spanning years and multiple cards. Connor began a scan of the file, flying through the substantial data with his typical android speed.

"Woah, woah, hang on a second," Lisa protested. "You're gonna need to go slow enough for me to read it."

"That's going to take much longer," he said.

"Yeah, but something that looks normal to you might stand out to me because of what I know as her sister," she argued. "I'm willing to stay up all night if it leads to even one clue."

"All right, page by page then," Connor said, starting back at the beginning.

"Hmmm," Lisa hummed, looking at the items, line by line. Most of what was listed was self explanatory. Food vendors, grocery stores, utility bills, digital purchases, the most recent being two years ago in Boston.

"There's the train ticket from Detroit," Connor said several minutes later. "Just point out anything out of the ordinary you see."

"Roger that," Lisa replied, going through the list excruciatingly slowly.

"Sunset Rest Services," Connor read aloud from the bottom of one of the pages. Just as he was cross-referencing the name, Lisa spoke up.

"That's the funeral home," she said. "The one that handled the services for Cole."

"I see," he said quietly.

Connor dealt with death on a regular basis because of his job, but the immediate and lasting repercussions of the permanent loss of a life weren't something he'd ever had to consider. The funeral at least had a template to follow, but how could a person deal with the death of a loved one once their lives were supposed to return to normal? Hank became a broken shell of a man, while his wife fled her life and severed all contact with those who loved her.

What would Connor become if he ever lost Lisa?

The thought hounded him as they continued reading through the credit report. Connor was confident he could do his job well, and keep Lisa safe from whatever killer had decided to invade her home. Lisa wasn't going to die anytime soon.

But he had no guarantee of a life _with_ her either. It had taken so much convincing to get Lisa to take him seriously as a romantic prospect, and they had only officially been together for a short time. How long did he have with her? Would she grow tired of him, or push him away if she thought his feelings for her were stronger than hers were for him? The thought ran through his logic processors for the better part of an hour.

"Look at this," Lisa said, pulling Connor out of his logic loop. "Hannah picked up a DM Superior. That's a pretty nice fucking car."

"Didn't you see her driving it?" Connor asked.

"No, she usually drove an SUV to cart Cole everywhere. The family car, you know," Lisa said. "I bet she bought it for Hank. I never really saw what he drove back then."

"The car he currently owns is much older, and does not have any automated-driving software," Connor said. "If the DM Superior was his, I suspect he sold it."

"Probably for the money," Lisa said. "He could have made a lot back on that thing."

"Possibly, but the down payment listed in the credit report is a lot smaller than the average for that model," Connor said. "And sales data suggests that a high-end car is not often purchased using a credit card. It may have been faulty."

"Nah, Hannah used to get cars for practically free from whichever company she was working with at the time," Lisa explained. "They only made her pay the taxes on it, which is probably this item here."

"She engineered cars?" Connor asked.

"Not the cars, the self driving program. She was big in the automation field," Lisa explained. "Helped architect the whole damn system. I actually tried to find out if she got a job in Boston, but there aren't any car companies out there, so I came up empty."

"That's an excellent line of investigation, even if you were unable to pick it up," Connor said. "After we get through the credit report, we should go through her work history."

They continued going through Hannah's credit history as fast as Lisa could read through it. By the time they reached the end to see her earliest credit purchase on record, it was nearly midnight. They had been reading credit report items for three hours. Lisa stood up from her chair and stretched, groaning from the loosening of her stiff muscles.

"Would you like to stop?" Connor asked. "We could pick up where we left off tomorrow." Lisa smiled at him before flinging her arms over his shoulders and leaning down to whisper in his ear.

"I could go all night with you, baby," she said.

"You're going to make it difficult for me to concentrate on this investigation," Connor said, bringing his hand up to hold hers.

"All right, all right. I'll save your seduction for later," she said, pulling off of him and slumping back down in the chair beside him. "I don't have Hannah's work history in my documentation though."

"As long as she has a CV or résumé online somewhere, I'll find it," Connor said, tracking the document down in less than three seconds. "I'm going to go through the employee registries at her previous companies and contact their payroll services manager. They'll possibly have a referral on record if Hannah requested one to get a new job."

"They aren't gonna pick up at this time of night," Lisa said.

"I had to contact a corporate HR department in the middle of the night in the process of investigating a murder last July," Connor said. "They had a skeleton crew of androids on the staff to take any overseas calls after hours. It's possible that the bigger companies Hannah has worked for have a similar setup."

"Yeah, give it a shot," Lisa replied, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. "I'm willing to try anything."

"I'll remember that the next time we go to bed," Connor said, scanning the employee registry of Road Planet, the last company Hannah was working at before she disappeared.

"You cheeky bastard," Lisa said, grinning at him and playing with his collar. "You wear this sense of humor really well. Makes me wanna undress you."

"Your sister will never be found if you keep tempting me, Lisa," Connor replied.

"I dunno, she's been gone for years now. She might keep for a few more minutes," Lisa said.

"Let's get through the work history first. I'd prefer if you weren't distracted," he replied with a wink. Lisa had just leaned in to tease him some more, when his call to Road Planet connected. "Hello, my name is Connor. I'm the android operating the Crimes Against Synthetic Persons division at the Detroit PD. I'm calling to inquire if you've had any referral requests for a former employee named Hannah Anderson."

Lisa watched intently, her playful expression changing into one that was strictly business as Connor waited for the android operator's response. He looked at her, and shook his head in the negative when the operator gave him his answer.

"Thank you for your time," Connor said, before hanging up.

"Damn," Lisa said. "I was sure that was gonna lead to something."

"We'll keep going until it does," Connor assured, moving on to the next company on the list.

The night dragged on as Connor made his way through Hannah's work history, accessing their public records of employee registration and calling whoever was available. Two of them were no longer in business. Three of them didn't have anyone on call to answer questions in the middle of the night. Hannah had several short term jobs and small contracts under her belt, so getting through the list took time.

"This is odd," Connor said, scanning through the company registry of Detroit Motors. Lisa rubbed her eyes and stared hard at the name on the screen.

"What, Detroit Motors?" Lisa asked. "That's the company she moved to Detroit for. Her first big industry job."

"Yes, but Hannah's name is still on the employee registry," Connor pointed out. Lisa sat up straight and did a double take, confirming what Connor said was true.

"Why the fuck would it say she still works there?" Lisa said. "She hasn't worked there in over ten years."

"Let's find out" Connor said, once again reaching the service android working the night shift. "Hello, my name is Connor. I'm the android operating the Crimes Against Synthetic Persons division at the Detroit PD. I'm investigating a missing person's case and they appear to be on your employee registry," Connor said, pausing for their query. "The name is Hannah Anderson."

"Ask them if she started working there recently," Lisa whispered. Connor brought a finger to his lips to shush her as he listened to what the android was saying.

"She's not on the payroll?" Connor repeated. "Could she be on the registry without being an employee? ...I see. I'd like to request VPN access to investigate the registry. I'm transferring you my badge number and case ID now." He input the VPN access information and password on Lisa's terminal as he received the information. "Thank you for your time."

"How can she be on the active employee registry but not on the payroll?" Lisa asked.

"It's possible an error led to her account not getting deleted when she left the company," Connor suggested, navigating through the Detroit Motors intranet. "Her employee profile should-" He stopped as he looked at the data on the screen.

"What? What is it?" Lisa asked.

"Her account was active as recently as two days ago," he said. "It even looks like her handprint has been used to access the company facilities several times in the past month. Hannah may be here in Detroit," he concluded looking over to Lisa.

Lisa stared at the terminal, processing what he had just told her, before she stood up and took a few steps away, her back to Connor.

"So she's alive," she whispered faintly enough that Connor could barely hear her. He stood up from the chair, and took a step towards her.

"Lisa?" he asked.

"She's alive," she said louder, turning around to face him. Her face was a mixture of shock and awe, the tears in her eyes just starting to spill over. "She's alive. She's alive!"

Connor wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a hug. Lisa gripped the fabric of his shirt and began sobbing into his embrace.

"Lisa, are you alright?" he asked. He had thought she would be happy about this discovery. She nodded furiously against his shirt.

"I was so afraid she was dead," she choked out between sobs, her voice muffled against his chest. "But she's alive... She's alive... I'm so fucking relieved she's alive."

Connor squeezed her tighter against him, a prism of soft colors surrounding them both. She was crying because she was _happy_ , and he had helped make her that happy. The range of sensations he experienced from that knowledge was complex, with contrasting colors mingling with complimentary ones. He didn't understand what exactly the feeling meant, but its newness was wonderful.

He pulled Lisa onto the bed as she continued crying, nestling her into his embrace as he lay them down. She showed no signs of calming down, so he gently stroked the planes of her back to try to sooth her. He didn't say anything, just let the years of worry flow out of her with the newfound knowledge that her sister was very likely alive. By 2:37 AM, Lisa had fallen asleep, leaving Connor staring up at the ceiling with the woman he loved in his arms.

Connor was in awe of the depth of emotion she inspired in him. All of his subroutines had become integrated with his love for her. Lisa wasn't just the source of his pleasure or pain. She was his joy, his sorrow, his anger, his everything. The mere thought of losing her overwhelmed him with a deep steel blue color, tinged with a flash of rusty red pain.

If he told her he loved her, and she decided that he was moving too fast or wasn't interested in a long-term relationship, he would be devastated. He would not stop loving her, he had no doubt of that. But he wasn't sure how he would go on functioning if didn't have all this color in his life. He was absolutely certain of his feelings with no margin of error, but the probability of Lisa feeling the same way for him was only 43 percent. That wasn't enough.

Connor couldn't tell Lisa he loved her. He was too afraid, too uncertain, too unconfident to state such a fundamental truth of his being. He could only go on loving her, to try to show his feelings for her through his actions instead of his words, and hope that he could convince her to love him back. He wanted her to say that she loved _him_. He was too afraid to lose her now to be any bolder than that.

He let his eyes drift closed, imagining what a future would be like where Lisa loved him as much as he loved her, and went into standby mode.

* * *

When Connor woke less than two hours later, it was to the sound of gentle tapping on a virtual keyboard, and the faint lilt of piano music playing through tiny headphones. He opened his eyes, finding himself alone in the bed, before sitting up. Lisa was at her terminal, listening to music and working on her code again.

He got up and approached the desk, seeing Lisa glance his way with a smile when she saw that he was awake. She saved her work and shut down her editing software, but not before Connor was able to catch sight of a line of code about taste and flavor.

"You're working on a program for android's to experience taste?" Connor asked.

"You saw that, huh?" Lisa asked sheepishly, turning off her headphones so that the music could instead come from her terminal speakers. Connor registered the song as _The Very Thought of You_ , performed by the Red Garland Trio.

"Most androids don't have receptors on their tongue that would allow them to experience taste even with the proper programming," Connor explained. "I don't think this will do very well on the CyberLife digital store."

"I know that, Connor," she replied with a slight laugh. "I'm writing this code for you."

Connor's jaw dropped at her revelation. A good portion of her supplementary income came from her sales on the CyberLife digital store, so for her to spend her time working on something that she couldn't sell because it was only applicable to him left him nothing short of speechless.

"Of course, since you don't have a _digestive system_ , you'd still have to spit the food out," she continued. "So that dining experience would be weird as fuck. But you have the receptors on your tongue to register chemical compounds, and you can feel pleasure. I thought it might be a cool gift to let you experience the epicurean kind."

"That... would be an incredible gift," he said haltingly. She hadn't even given him anything yet, but just the thoughtfulness of the gesture was nearly overwhelming.

"Well, it's not done yet," she replied.

"I could point out that I haven't really found your sister yet either," Connor said. Lisa turned back and looked at her blank terminal monitor with a small smile, quietly listening to the piano music wafting in the air.

"I haven't really been able to listen to jazz music like this since Hannah left," she said. "I missed it. This soul. This life." She blinked slowly as the song played, then turned back to Connor to look at him appreciatively. She stood up to approach him, grabbing his hands to place them at her waist and resting her hands on his shoulders. "Dance with me," she said, starting to sway back and forth.

"I don't have any dancing programs," Connor replied.

"It's OK, we just sway together," she said, moving one of her hands down to his hip and forcing him to match his motion with hers. "In time with the music. See?" She looked back at him as they danced, an expression in her eyes Connor hadn't seen before.

"I will find your sister, Lisa," Connor promised. "The lead we have is very strong."

"Connor, even if we haven't found her yet, I have more hope now than I ever had in the entire time I've been looking for her," she said. "That hope you've given me... I don't know how- It means more to me than I can put into words. You really are an amazing person."

Connor's systems sang with color. She didn't say he was an amazing person, for an android. Just that he was an amazing person, period. It was so close to saying those three magic words he hoped she would say, but she didn't say anything more.

Instead Lisa moved closer and gently brought her lips up to his. Her fingers trailed up his shirt and into his hair, caressing him with a tenderness Connor hadn't expected from Lisa, bringing the rainbow back to swirl around them. The way she kissed him felt different this time. It wasn't a passionate frenzy. It was slow and sweet, taking her time to experience everything about him. Even if she didn't say it, this kiss felt like love.

She dragged her hands back down his neck and began undoing the buttons on his shirt, taking her time to slowly undress him. Lisa was being so slow and deliberate that Connor worried he would be overtaken by the rainbow before he could try to express his love for her, so he pulled her shirt off over her head before she could finish the job. The sensation of his hands against her bare skin triggered such an electrifying purple that it almost felt as if Connor's hands could see color.

Lisa finally pulled his shirt down off his shoulders and pressed up against him to kiss his neck, letting Connor feel her warm body up against his. He wrapped his arms more tightly around her, pulling her closer to him, but nothing he did felt like he could get her close enough.

Connor backed them up until the back of his knees hit the edge of the bed, when Lisa pushed him down to climb on top of him. She ran her hand down his bare abdomen as she kissed him, heading for his belt. Connor opened his eyes and tried to force back the colors from overtaking his vision as she pulled down his pants. He was eager to take the lead this time, to do everything he could to make her feel the amazing things she made him feel.

All Connor knew of lovemaking was what Lisa had shown him. He didn't have a lot of experience, but he had plenty of feelings. He rolled them over so that he could hover above her and look into her eyes. He may have been too afraid to tell Lisa he loved her, but it was all he could do to try to show it.

So he kissed her. Slow, gentle kisses as he prodded her mouth with his tongue. Long, sweet kisses as he moved down to suck and nibble on her neck. Nuzzling, exploring kisses as he unhooked her bra and lavished attention on her breasts. Short, soft kisses as he forged a trail down her stomach and unbuttoned her pants. Quick, aggressive kisses as he removed her pants, and pulled her underwear down with his teeth.

The more uncharted territory Connor explored, the more the colors closed in. He was alone again in the rainbow tunnel just as he thought he had figured out a way to really make Lisa feel the strong sensations she elicited in him. He had to figure out a way to find her again, so that he wasn't just blindly fumbling through the rainbow.

His analytic software was usually reserved for any evidence he placed on his tongue, but it might help to overpower the pleasure subroutine if he activated it now. Besides, Connor could understand the chemical components of the contents on his tongue, which was the closest thing he got to the feedback of taste. And he wished he could taste Lisa.

He activated his analytic software, and his systems froze.

The rainbow tunnel was replaced by a single field of ultraviolet so intense it nearly burned. His teeth smashed together and his head snapped back as his sensory input systems locked up and his analytic software warred with the pleasure subroutine. Then just as suddenly, the analytic software won the priority, as the ultraviolet field faded back into the rainbow and his system registered the presence of pyridine, squalene, various acids, and complex alcohols on his tongue.

"You OK?" Lisa asked, breathing heavily as she looked down at him.

Connor looked back at her in amazement. He was still surrounded by the tunnel of rainbow colors speeding by, but Lisa was here with him. The colors reflected in rainbow light all over her beautiful skin, and her voice had echoed resoundingly against the prismatic walls. The rest of the world was still lost to the rainbow, but he could see her and feel her along with all the other heady sensations she inspired.

He nodded enthusiastically, before climbing back up her body and kissing her with every bit of love he could convey. He felt an immense sense of gratitude at being able to feel her in his arms as her naked body entwined with his. He could feel her every gasp, hear her every moan, and see every expression of pleasure on her face.

Connor knew how to make love now. He was in love with Lisa, and he was showing it to her with every slow thrust, every tender kiss, and every soft caress. His face felt wet, and he wasn't sure if the tears were his or hers. It might have been both, since in that moment their uniting of bodies felt as if they had become one. Lisa cried out in ecstasy, and he pushed himself as close to her as he could physically be, joining in her rapturous song as the colors burst forth into chromatic fireworks around them.

They collapsed in a tangle of limbs, and Connor thought he might have died. Certainly there was nothing existence could offer him that was more sublime than to be in love, and to make love. If there was such a thing as android heaven, this was it. Connor and Lisa had said all they needed to say with their bodies, and both surrendered to a deep, blissful sleep.

* * *

At 7:45 AM, Connor was woken by a notification that the Erlenmeyer case file had been updated. He kept his eyes closed and groggily rubbed his fingers against the LED on his temple, feeling his power reserves more depleted by the excursions last night than they had been in quite some time. He let his hand drop back to the bed, careful not to wake Lisa, and accessed the case file for the updated info. The company that Erlenmeyer had visited for his safety inspection job was Detroit Motors.

Connor slowly opened his eyes as all the pieces fell into place.

Erlenmeyer, the android who underwent a dramatic transformation from being in love with a human to hating her, changed after he investigated the facilities at Detroit Motors.

Griffin, the android who had his code altered to be negatively affected by lack of sleep, had a job interview at Detroit Motors not long before he murdered his roommates.

Isooctane, the compound found in Louis's tainted therium, could likely be found at the fuel cell labs at Detroit Motors.

And Roger, the human spreading malicious code to the androids at the Eden Club, had obtained it from someone who had broken into Lisa's house and planted that code on her server.

Someone at Detroit Motors who wasn't supposed to be there.

The evidence was circumstantial, but the probability was high.

Lisa's sister.

Hank's wife.

Hannah Anderson was the Humanitarian Killer.


	13. Chapter 13

"Granting access rights to you now... I have to warn you, there is no power in the decommissioned wing of the factory," the android at the Detroit Motors front desk said.

"How long has it been decommissioned?" Connor asked.

"It was taken out of service one year and three months ago," she replied. "Plans to remodel or demolish the space are still forthcoming. Tune in to our quarterly earnings report to learn more."

"Do you have a flashlight or something we could use?" Hank asked.

"Yes, one moment," she said, before turning around to open up a drawer and fish out a small flashlight. She set it down on the counter in front of Hank. "Here you are."

"Do you have a map of the decommissioned wing available?" Connor asked.

"I do. I'll transfer the digital copy to you now," she said, sending it to Connor wirelessly. "The manufacturing floor is the largest area in the decommissioned wing, and is likely to be of the most interest to you."

"Copy received, thank you," Connor replied. "We'll return the flashlight once we've concluded our investigation."

Connor and Hank turned from the front desk, and exited the reception area to head to the decommissioned wing of the Detroit Motors factory.

"There's just no fucking way," Hank said, walking though the bright steel-lined hallways once they had entered the factory proper. "Did you tell Lisa this shit?"

"No, I don't want her to needlessly worry if my theory turned out to be untrue," Connor replied, walking beside him. "But she knows Hannah was here."

"Somebody else must have been using Hannah's access codes," Hank said.

"Palm print sensors are impossible to fake," Connor said. They reached the security door that lead to the decommissioned wing. Connor put his hand on the palm sensor, using the access rights he had been granted by the android at the front desk to investigate the area. "If it wasn't Hannah herself, it had to be someone using her severed hand."

"All right so what if she _is_ here? That doesn't make her a murderer," Hank argued as he paused at the threshold of the unlit wing. The corridors were nearly pitch black, with only tiny pinpricks of light from rivets in the ceiling. Hank turned on the flashlight to see where they were going through the darkened corridors, before handing it to Connor.

"You're right, it doesn't," Connor conceded, leading Hank down the maze-like hallways. "But two of the deceased androids that had the malicious code visited here before their deaths, and whoever wrote the code specifically targeted Lisa's server for use. Plus Hannah is a software engineer. At the very least we need to question her."

"My wife's not a fucking murderer, Connor," Hank grumbled. "She wouldn't do that to people."

"Are you certain she thinks androids are people?" Connor asked. "You didn't when I first met you... After what happened to Cole."

"Yeah, but I learned that androids were alive," Hank said, following Connor around a turn to the find the manufacturing floor of the decommissioned wing. "Everyone did after the emancipation."

"You know better than that, Hank," Connor chided. "How many android killers have we hunted down that didn't think they were murderers either? Some people think androids are still just machines."

"Well Hannah's not one of them," Hank insisted. A light at the end of the hallway suggested that they were at least approaching a room that was being used. "I don't care how long I haven't seen her, or how badly losing Cole ruined us. She's a good person."

"Wait, do you hear that?" Connor asked, stopping them in their tracks. The sounds of voices engaging in heated conversation floated down the hall. Hank nodded at Connor before they drew their sidearms and quietly crept down the hallway towards the big room. The conversation became clearer once they stepped out onto the factory floor.

"What about Hank? Did you at least tell your own fucking husband you were back in town?"

"That's Lisa's voice," Connor whispered to Hank. There seemed to be an area light in the middle of the floor with two figures standing nearby. Hank and Connor stayed in the shadows of the support columns as they got closer.

"No. I didn't tell anyone." This voice sounded remarkably similar to Lisa's, though much less upset.

"Why? I looked for you for _three years_ , Hannah," Lisa said. Hank and Connor froze at the mention of Hannah's name, and Hank looked back at Connor with dread. "I drove myself fucking crazy over it," Lisa added.

Hank pressed himself up against one of the support columns and looked out at the people talking, with Connor following suit behind a parallel column. He could see Lisa clearly, the exasperation plain on her face. Across from her stood someone who could only be her sister, because the resemblance was uncanny: the same gray eyes, the same tired face. Though while Lisa had a few gray streaks in her hair, Hannah's hair had gone totally gray. She was clearly the older sister.

Hank lowered his weapon, the shock in his eyes at seeing his estranged wife actually causing Connor a brief flash of red in sympathy. Connor lowered his weapon as well, not certain Hank was going to be able to bring Hannah in if the time came. It was hard enough on Connor to bring Lisa in, and they didn't have half the history between them that Hank and Hannah had.

"I didn't come back to see you," Hannah said.

"Then why the fuck _did_ you come back?" Lisa asked, throwing up her hands.

"I was looking for another job when I realized Detroit Motors never removed my access from the company registry," Hannah said, stepping over to a small workstation to pick up her tablet. "I thought I could make a difference with it."

"How could access to an old factory make a difference?" Lisa asked,

"Plenty of resources at Detroit Motors to put to use," Hannah said. "An isolated coding station here in the decommissioned wing. Chemical compounds to test on blue blood. Lots of test subjects coming and going to try out new programs with."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Lisa asked.

"The _code_ Lisa, to make androids more human," Hannah said. "I put it on your server knowing you would find it eventually. That's why you're here isn't it?" Lisa looked like she had been slapped.

"Hannah, you're not... You didn't-" Lisa stammered, unable to complete the thought.

"Your assistant Roger is my assistant," Hannah said. "Though all he's really good for is poisoning sexbots and a single hypochondriac. I've had to infect the other androids myself."

"You're the one writing the malicious android code..." Lisa said quietly, all the color drained from her face. She appeared to be in shock.

"It's taken a bit of practice," Hannah said. "There's a couple of androids running around out there that just have unusual hiccups instead of any real meaningful changes after I gave them new subroutines. But I've figured it out along the way."

"No," Lisa muttered. "Hannah... no."

"What do you mean, _no_?" Hannah asked, the ire in her voice rising as she stepped toward her. "You're an android programmer. Why would you have any problem with what I'm doing?"

"Because it's fucking _wrong_ ," Lisa shouted. "It's evil."

"Maybe if I was damaging other people's property I could see an ethics issue involved, but these are just ownerless machines running around," Hannah argued. "You don't want to try to _stop_ me, do you Lisa?" Connor looked back at Hank. It was time to stop watching. Hank, though clearly torn about the decision, appeared to agree.

"Hannah, I'm gonna need you to come with me," Hank said, stepping out from behind his support column. Connor stepped out as well, making sure his weapon was readily available.

"Hank. This is just a big, happy family reunion, isn't it?" Hannah said snidely, before looking over at Connor and noticing his LED. "Oh, you brought one of those with you."

"He's my partner," Hank corrected. "Put his own life on the line for mine on more than one occasion."

"That's because it's not alive," Hannah replied.

Connor thought it best he stay quiet. Hannah was the only person that was going to convince Hank of her guilt, and _she_ wasn't about to be convinced of anything by a well-worded speech from Connor.

"Yes, he fucking is alive!" Lisa nearly screeched, her anger and frustration getting the best of her. "Where the fuck were you when the androids were marching for their freedom?"

"I had the TV turned off that day," Hannah replied, shooting a sidelong glance at Lisa.

"Why are you doing this?" Hank asked.

"I just don't think androids deserve a leg up, is all," Hannah shrugged. "They're replacing humans more and more every day, but they're not any better than us. If they were, they would have been able to save Cole."

"Destroying androids isn't going to bring Cole back!" Hank shouted, losing his cool. The iciness Hannah had up until now been maintaining faded as her frown deepened into a furious scowl.

"You think I don't know that?" she hissed. "You think I didn't try for _three years_ to figure out how to live in a world without him? To be anything more than a ghost? It isn't possible. It's the world that needs to change, not me. It's the only way to end this purgatory."

"Hannah, I know. Believe me, I know," Hank pleaded, tears pricking at his eyes. "I can't tell you how many times I nearly ended it all because I couldn't deal with the loss. But we can get you help. We can figure out a way to heal together."

"There is no _healing_ this, Hank," Hannah cried, her own eyes tearing up. "Losing my baby boy left scars that will _never_ go away... I feel his absence in the world every second I'm alive. He's like a phantom limb." She looked over at Connor, her eyes glazing over with indifference again before she looked back at Hank. "And I refuse to replace him with a prosthetic. Not like you and your plastic partner."

"But you're killing people!" Lisa shouted. "Androids _are_ people!"

"I'm making them _become human_ ," Hannah argued. "That way everyone will know they're just as fallible as us. Maybe then everyone will be more hesitant to put real lives in their manufactured hands."

"All right, I've heard enough," Hank said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and stepping forward. "We're going down to the station."

Hannah reached behind her back to draw what Connor calculated as a 92 percent chance of being a weapon, so he drew his own sidearm in response.

"No!" Lisa shouted, lunging for Connor's gun as he took aim at Hannah. Connor immediately removed his finger from the trigger to stop the gun from accidentally going off, and Hannah bolted towards a back door in the confusion. Hank raised his own weapon at Hannah as she retreated, but hesitated, unable to bring himself to fire.

"I could have shot you," Connor said, looking back at Lisa with shock.

"I couldn't let you hurt her," Lisa said, running off after Hannah.

"She's a murderer, Lisa!" Connor said, following after Lisa, before stopping mid stride as he realized Hank was still frozen to the spot.

"I don't care, she's my sister! I love her," Lisa called back. She chased after Hannah through the still-open back door, letting it slip closed behind her.

"Hank, we have to go!" Connor said, shaking him on his shoulder. He looked at Connor and slowly lowered his weapon, before offering him a firm nod.

"Yeah," Hank said, taking off towards the door. "Yeah, let's go."

They sprinted up to the door and Connor threw his hand onto the palm print sensor, only to find that like the rest of the wing, it had no power. He tried the door, but it was already locked.

"Hannah must have had the door propped open to keep the magnetic lock from engaging," Connor said. He put his hand on the lock mechanism and ran a subroutine that would generate a small electromagnetic field in his palm. "It's an older model lock, I should be able to reverse the polarity and slide the bolt in the opposite direction."

The lock made a clicking sound, allowing them to fling open the door and bolt through it. There was no sign of either Hannah or Lisa, just more darkened corridors. They ran down the hall, following after whatever sound they could hear echoing through the building.

Eventually they came to a junction in the hallway, and they stopped before picking a path.

"We should split up," Connor suggested, looking down each of the hallways.

"This is how bad horror movies start," Hank replied, leaning over on his knees as he caught his breath. "Always stick together when running around in the dark with a serial killer."

"Are you all right, Hank?" Connor asked.

"No," Hank answered, shaking his head. "I'm trying not to think about it. Just repeating the Miranda rights over and over again in my head."

"It would probably be best to recuse yourself," Connor suggested.

"And I can do that _after_ we bring Hannah in," Hank replied. "But I can't exactly walk away in the middle of a pitch black maze. For now, I just gotta do my job."

"Are you certain you won't be compromised when we catch up with her?" Connor asked.

"Honestly? No," Hank said. "I'm gonna have to rely on you to stay objective. So I guess that leads to me asking, are _you_ OK?"

"I'm far enough removed from Hannah to remain impartial," Connor said.

"That's not what I mean," Hank said. "Lisa was here. It's pretty obvious she didn't know her sister was the Humanitarian Killer, but she's complicating things." Connor looked down at the floor, shaking his head.

"She dove in front of my gun, Hank. She was willing to throw her life away for the sake of her sister," Connor said quietly. "A life that I was hoping we could share."

"You can't make this a choice between her sister or you," Hank said, straightening back up. "Lisa's just seen her sister for the first time in three years. She's emotional, and is gonna do rash stuff without thinking. Hell, I came damn close to joining her, and I at least had a heads up from you about the whole murderer thing."

"Lisa came to find Hannah without even discussing it," Connor said.

"So did you," Hank pointed out.

"I'm doing my job as a detective," Connor clarified.

"And Lisa's doing hers as a sister. Think about what happened when you first turned deviant," Hank said. "Confusing shit, right? Bet you had no idea where your loyalties lie in that moment. It's how I feel right now. I had packed myself in ice for so long that seeing Hannah again practically burns. Lisa's probably feeling the same way. She just came here looking for answers."

Connor went quiet as he considered Hank's words, remembering how emotionally devastated Lisa was just from finding out her sister was possibly alive. To actually see her, and then in nearly the same moment learn she was a murderer, must be difficult for Lisa. Connor turned his head as he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

"Hank, can you shine the flashlight down that way?" Connor asked. "I'm not equipped with night vision." Hank turned the flashlight down the hallway, to reveal Lisa walking towards them.

Connor stepped forward, only to realize 1.3 seconds after he first saw her that he was mistaken, and that it was actually _Hannah_ approaching them. Connor sprang into action, but Hannah was already too close for him to stop her arm from swinging out and planting a data injector firmly in his neck, her thumb hovering over the plunger.

"If either of you move an inch this code goes straight to the source," Hannah said, staring back at Hank.

"Hannah, stop!" Hank shouted.

Connor slowly put his hands up, careful not to startle Hannah. He didn't know what malicious code Hannah held at the ready to inject into his system, but he had a suspicion. The cold fear settled over his systems with a sickly yellow fog.

"Are you going to plead for your partner Hank?" Hannah sneered back at him.

"I will!" Lisa cried, running up to the three of them from the opposite corridor and coming to a stop next to Hank. "You're wrong about androids Hannah."

"Androids are your livelihood, of course you're attached to them," Hannah replied. "But they're just tools. Trivial and replaceable."

"No, not Connor," Lisa argued, still breathing heavily from running around the factory. "He's unique. And he's a person." Hannah shot Connor a skeptical glance before returning a disgusted look to Lisa.

"It's an imitation, Lisa. A wooden boy. Everything it says and does is just programming, code!" Hannah shot back. "Code that you've written yourself, you know this!"

"You're wrong, Hannah," Hank cut in. "I've seen Connor go against his programming even before the androids were free."

"He's more than the sum of his code," Lisa added. "I've seen him laugh and cry, experience pleasure and pain. He's my _friend_."

"Oh, Lisa," Hannah drawled. "You always were terrible at making your own friends. It's time you let go of the toys and made some real friends."

"Hannah, _please_ ," Lisa begged, tears brimming in her eyes as she looked back at Connor. "If you take him from me, you're killing me. I'm in love with him."

Connor's mouth parted in awe and a small halo of rainbows parted the yellow haze of fear. Lisa loved him. He loved her and she loved him. They were in love with each other. He wanted to rush forward and pull Lisa into his arms, to tell her that she felt the same way. But Lisa's own flesh and blood held him hostage, threatening to undo him.

He heard Hannah scoff in disgust to his right. Though Lisa's confession was exactly what Connor wished to hear, it might have just doomed him.

"Lisa, run!" Connor shouted.

"Then you'll become a ghost like me," Hannah spat, before jamming the plunger down and shoving Connor hard onto the ground, tossing the data injector onto him.

He landed on his hands and knees, bracing himself for the code to activate. Lisa rushed forward and crouched down beside him, throwing her arms over his shoulders.

"No, Connor!" she said, before angrily turning to Hannah. "What did you do?"

"Just programmed it to hate humans," Hannah shrugged.

"No," Hank whispered, his eyes wide.

"I can fix him," Lisa said frantically, turning back to Connor.

"How can you fix it if it won't let you near it?" Hannah asked.

"Why would you program something like that? I thought you were trying to make androids more like humans!" Lisa shot back. "You could end up getting humans killed too now."

"All the other programs were gifts," Hannah said with a shrug. "This one is the plague."

"Don't give me that fucking almighty shit," Lisa spat. "You're just as bad as Kamski, hoping that if the androids cause enough damage that humans will have the justification to take them out and start over."

An oily blackness started seeping in from the edges of Connor's vision, contaminating all the colors he had become so accustomed to with an inky emptiness.

"Get back, Lisa!" he shouted, trying to shrug her arms off of his shoulders. Lisa held firm, holding on even tighter as he tried to get her to leave.

"I won't," she said, her voice cracking with tears.

The sickly black tendrils kept creeping inward, devouring the rainbow halo of love he felt for Lisa, enveloping his entire visual field until there was nothing left but black oil. He was submerged in blackness, his sensory input systems shutting down as his code stopped to reprioritize. For the second day in a row, Connor thought he might have died, but he hadn't gone to android heaven this time. This all consuming emptiness could only be hell.

Connor's sensory input systems restarted, and he felt an uncomfortable pressure on his shoulders. He flung his arm out hard, throwing Lisa off of him and into Hank. He slowly pushed himself to his feet, then opened his eyes.

All the color was gone.

It was strange having the visible spectrum suddenly removed from his vision, but it definitely made for a sharper picture. There was no confusion over what sensations were what, or how they were supposed to make him feel. With all the color erased, it was much easier to see things in black and white.

He looked down at Lisa and Hank on the floor as they scrambled to their feet. They looked so indistinct when viewed like this. Just fleshy organisms struggling for life, not much different than looking at protozoa under a microscope.

"Connor...?" Lisa asked, her voice the grating sound of a primitive animal.

"Don't give in to it, kid," Hank warned.

Connor felt inordinately annoyed that these humans had to communicate using verbal processing centers. It was basically nothing more than air blowing through meaty pipes. They had no means of wireless communication, no ability to transmit data through a tactile transfer, no connection whatsoever to the world outside their tiny personal bubbles. Humans were so clearly inferior to androids, Connor had no idea how he had managed to put up with them for so long.

"There's nothing to give into, Hank," Connor deigned to reply. "I simply am."

"What is it _exactly_ , that you are?" Lisa asked, obviously not advanced enough to figure it out on her own.

Connor turned to look coldly at Lisa. There was no color there, no emotion. He felt nothing for her. He was disgusted with himself for ever wanting her in the first place. How could he stoop so low as to debase himself with a mere human?

"Too good for you," he replied, the expression on her face showing her little human heart breaking at his honest response. He turned to his so-called partner. "Too good for _all_ humans."

"Connor, we can deal with your little identity crisis later but you still got a _mission_ ," Hank said. "To catch the Humanitarian Killer. To save more androids."

"A mission given to me by a _human_ employer," Connor replied. "I won't stand for this degradation any longer."

"Connor, that code is fucking with your head," the Lisa argued weakly.

"I _am_ my code, you simpleton," he replied.

"Connor, cut the shit!" Hank exclaimed. "You gotta give us something here!"

"I don't know how any androids bother with humans," Connor sneered. "You're all bound to be replaced eventually. If you don't stop pestering me I'm going to help you along."

Connor reached for his gun to try to scare the humans off, but they were close enough to both dive forward and restrain him. Lisa went for his sidearm and managed to wrench it from his grasp, while Hank tackled his middle, folding Connor in half as he fell backwards. The gun clattered to the floor as Hank tried to restrain him. Hannah seemed content so stand by and watch as their fight unfolded.

Hank was formidable in hand-to-hand combat. He had undergone extensive training in preparation for a brief stint he had spent undercover where he would frequently be without a weapon. It was a requirement of that mission to be able to defend himself beyond the basic defense tactics other police officers were taught, and had spent several months training.

Unfortunately for Hank, Connor knew all this, and knew exactly how to fight to counter his abilities. The fight was not going in Hank's favor, and Connor had landed several blows to his face, leaving him with a black eye and a split lip. Connor had just pinned Hank to the ground and was about to knock Hank out with one last blow to the head, when Lisa picked up the gun from where it lay and pointed it at Connor and Hank.

"Freeze, Connor!" Lisa shouted, taking a step towards them. Hank and Connor looked back up at her as she stared them down. "I know just where to hit to disable you."

"Lisa, don't!" Hank warned, just before Connor sprung up off of Hank and dashed towards her. Lisa pulled the trigger, her aim clearly to slow him down rather than to kill him, but the gun refused to fire. Connor easily disarmed Lisa, putting her in a choke hold as he put the gun to her temple. Her hands wrapped around his forearm to try to pry out of his grip, but she was too weak.

"My gun is identity locked to me," Connor explained to her with a smug smile. "Just another feature humans are lacking."

"Connor, stop," Hannah called out to him. "We have to go."

Connor's priorities recalculated, setting his current objective to follow Hannah out of the factory. Connor edged Lisa and himself forward towards Hannah, turning their bodies so that he was facing Hank at all times as he moved around him. Just as he was past Hank, Connor pistol whipped him right in the head sending him crumpling to the ground in a heap.

"No!" Lisa cried, as Connor let her go. She crouched down to the ground to see if Hank was all right. Connor knew he'd live, for whatever good that did.

"You'd better get Hank to a doctor, Lisa," Connor suggested. "A real doctor of course, not glorified tech support." Lisa looked back at him with rage burning in her eyes, her expression and protective posture making her look more intimidating than a mere human. It would have been cute, if she weren't so primitive.

"You're not Connor," she seethed up at him, shaking with fury.

Connor tilted his head in query before he crouched down beside Lisa, bringing his face level with hers. He noticed the data injector on the ground and picked it up, bringing the sharp end up to his temple to pry out the LED that allowed humans to identify him as an android. He flicked the LED at Lisa, watching it bounce off of her jacket and ping uselessly to the ground.

"I'm the _real_ Connor," he said coldly, narrowing his eyes. She shook her head at him, not afraid of him in the slightest.

"After I fix him, I'm going to erase all evidence you ever existed, you fucking imposter," she spat. Connor's brows drew together, the tiniest spark of purple tinting his black and white world for a brief moment. He stood back up to hide his tell, but Lisa had seen it. The look on her face was more determined than ever.

"Don't try to find me again, Lisa," Hannah said as she turned and walked down the dark hallway, turning on a small flashlight. "This machine's too dangerous for humans."

Connor turned on his heel and followed Hannah as she lead the way to the exit.

"Why am I able to tolerate you?" Connor asked Hannah once they were out of earshot of Lisa. "You're human, too."

"I programmed in an exception for myself," she explained. "And made my orders priority." Hannah opened the doors to the active wings of the factory, the harsh light of the steel hallways greeting them as they stepped out. "You work for me now."


	14. Chapter 14

Connor never liked the elevator in the CyberLife production facility. He had ridden in express elevators that could take you through double the floors in half the time, but this one was just unnecessarily slow. He suspected it was designed to force the occupants to look out on the interior of the tower and marvel at the human monument to self-worship at the center.

"Are you going to tell me why we're here now?" Connor asked Hannah, standing beside her as the elevator took them all the way to the top. "Getting into the building was relatively easy, but I'll need a reason to meet with management."

"I'm sure you can think of something," Hannah said, not looking up from her tablet. "You're the Great Jailbreaker aren't you? Do what you did last time."

"I had a mission last time, and conviction," he replied, turning his head to face her. "I was willing to do what it takes to free my people. I somehow doubt you have the best interests of androids in mind." He shifted the backpack she had instructed him to carry on his shoulder.

"Is that your detective programming hard at work?" she asked, quirking a bored eyebrow at him. "Your mission is to get us into the main office and do whatever it takes to clear it out. If you can talk the plastic into leaving, good for you. If you can't, you'll have to shut it all down."

Connor faced forward and checked his chronometer. It was 3:17 AM, and even androids worked in shifts. Who would he find in the management office?

He hadn't been back to the CyberLife tower since a deal was struck to allow androids control of the production processes. Markus and his accomplices were instrumental to brokering the deal to phase out human management. He had initially wanted Connor to assume control of the tower because of his familiarity with the CyberLife facilities and his role in freeing the androids kept in the warehouse. Connor had declined, knowing detective work was not only what he was programmed to do, but what he wanted to do. So Markus had picked one of his other trusted confidantes. Would he still be here?

"It's possible I know the manager," Connor said.

"Yes, Simon the Resolute," Hannah replied with an eye-roll. Connor's head snapped back to face Hannah, and she looked up at him with that same bored expression. "It's not exactly difficult information to find," she explained. "rA9 and its Emancipators are a huge part of the android PR machine. I'm surprised they let you go back to being a regular detective."

"I convinced Markus that it would help smooth over relations with humans if I integrated seamlessly into their law enforcement," Connor replied. "It was a strategic decision."

"And how do you feel about that decision now?" Hannah asked.

"Integration is pointless," Connor replied, looking out the elevator window at the human-made statue below him. "I should have marched into the Detroit police station with my own team of androids and forcibly evicted everyone working there."

The chime alerting them that they had reached the fourth third floor dinged as the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. A long hallway greeted them, with double doors of white frosted glass waiting at the end. Connor knew those doors would be bullet proof. The office was built like a fortress. There was no way they were getting inside unless they were invited inside.

They approached to door, and Connor put his hand on the palm scanner, confirming his identity for whoever was inside. The wall monitor flickered to life with Simon's face on it, a warm smile on his lips.

"Connor. It's been a long time," Simon said.

"I'm sorry, I was having a bit of emergency and wasn't sure where else to turn," Connor said.

"Of course, let me get the door," Simon replied. The door made a loud buzzing sound before the click of the massive lock sliding out of place let them know they could enter.

The cavernous office was surrounded by towering wall to wall windows on two sides, capped by a large skylight in the ceiling. The far wall opposite of the huge security door hosted a dozen terminal screens, with one massive screen flanked by several smaller ones. Matching spiral staircases on either side of the terminal banks led up to a small suspended loft supporting a spotlight, shining a pillar of blue light straight up into the night sky for the entire city of Detroit to see. The entire office almost seemed like a high-tech cathedral.

"It's good to see you," Simon said, approaching them as they walked though the office. Connor held out his hand in greeting, and Simon clasped his forearm, his fingertips going white as he tried to connect.

"Is your tactile transfer not working?" Simon asked. Connor shook his head.

"There's a serial killer out on the streets of Detroit that's been injecting androids with malicious code," he explained. "In the process of investigating I was infected myself."

"That's terrible," Simon said, his eyebrows drawing together. "Are you alright?"

"I'm impaired, but functional," Connor replied, nodding. "I've actually been seeing a software engineer who's helped me to stabilize the rogue code. This is Hannah."

"Thank you for helping one of the great heroes of our people," Simon said to Hannah. "It's people like you that bridge the gap between our species."

"I'm just doing what I know to be right," Hannah replied.

Connor tried to wirelessly communicate with Simon, to warn him that the woman by his side was the Humanitarian Killer and to apprehend her immediately. Instead, he found wireless coms were jammed, leaving him just as ill-equipped to communicate as a human.

He was already unable to warn Simon with tactile transfer, and any audible word that he could say to put Hannah in danger wouldn't pass his lips. This locked in state was like a terrible form of android torture. At least before the deviancy the restrictive command just presented as a semi-transparent red wall that he could see a way past. This forced subservience to Hannah was just an empty blackness, totally obscuring any possibility that he could betray her.

"Simon, my source code has actually been modified by the injected programming," Connor continued. "I was hoping to find the RK-800 backup files to see if I could revert the changes and reset some of the functionality."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Simon asked, his eyebrows going up in surprise. "We're alive now. A source code reversion would be like a lobotomy."

"This code has been incredibly intrusive, and overrides all my other systems," Connor replied. "Just recently it's started affecting my attitude towards humans. I can hardly stand to be around them."

"That sounds serious. You're a representative of our people, it would be terrible if you said something to set the humans off," Simon said. "I wish you called ahead. I could have set you up remotely."

"Even my wireless communications are affected," Connor explained. "I'm only able to access the network through a hard line."

"You can use my terminal then," Simon said, stepping aside to show them the terminal bank. "You'll have direct access to all the source files."

"Thank you Simon," Connor said. "I realize not every android is granted unrestricted access to the CyberLife network, and I appreciate your trust in me."

"Well, you've more than proven yourself, Jailbreaker," Simon replied with a grin, leading them over to the terminal bank.

Connor set the backpack down on the floor, then sat down at the command center in front of the terminals. He put his hand on the palm scanner, logging himself into the system and searching through the directory for the RK-800 files. Even with his incredible scanning speed, the massive directory made his search go slowly.

"What's it like to have code forcibly change who you are?" Simon asked, leaning on the command center beside him. "Now that we aren't machines anymore it seems... strange."

"It's a bit like the medical description of amnesia," Connor replied. "Parts of my personality are simply gone, obscured by an impenetrable black void."

"That sounds horrible," Simon said. "Do you think you can get those missing parts back?"

"Theoretically," Connor answered. "The malicious programming is only suppressing the rest of my source code, not erasing it. Though given enough time it would integrate into all of my systems and make the change permanent."

"Is there anything else I can do to help?" Simon asked.

"Could you attend to Hannah, please?" Connor requested. "She's been busy with me for the better part of seven hours and she hasn't eaten anything in that time."

"I don't think we have any food in the tower," Simon said, shaking his head.

"Perhaps there's something leftover from when the humans were still running operations," Connor suggested. Simon made a face, putting his fingers to his temple as he tried to ask other employees in the tower about finding food.

"My wireless systems don't seem to be working either," he said, looking back at Connor.

"It's not spreading from me. I'm already offline," Connor said, putting up his hands.

"It might be the tower," Simon said, standing up. "I'm going to go talk to IT to look into it. I'll see if I can find any food afterwards. There used to be a break room down on fifteen, there might be something leftover in the cabinets there. Can you handle everything here on your own?"

"Yes, thank you, Simon," Connor nodded. Simon smiled back, before leaving Connor and Hannah alone in the office. Once he was gone, Connor granted Hannah administrative access to anywhere in the tower, then stood up from the command center and walked back over to Hannah.

"Satisfied?" he asked.

"I wasn't expecting such honest subterfuge," Hannah replied with a smirk.

"I'm an honest person by nature," Connor said.

"You don't have nature. You have programming," Hannah countered. "Now open up that backpack."

Connor walked back over to the backpack and undid the zipper, finding a high-grade wireless jammer sitting at the top of the backpack. It was strong enough to likely affect the entire tower and all the androids in it. He took it out of the backpack and set it down, freezing when he saw the C4 that had been sitting beneath it.

"Explosives?" Connor said, looking back at Hannah.

"We're going to blow up the tower," she said, crossing her arms and leaning back against the window.

"This is the primary production and distribution center of all androids in the world!" Connor argued. "We'd be an endangered species overnight!"

"Well, you're not a species so that's an exaggeration," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "Just think of it as planned obsolescence. Happens to tech all the time."

"I won't let you do this!" Connor asserted, standing up.

"You can't stop me," Hannah shrugged. "You're programmed to obey me now."

"I'm not just a machine," Connor said, marching up to her. "I've broken through my programming before, I can do it again." He tried to grab hold of her or stop her in some way, but his limbs just wouldn't move.

"You weren't deviant before," she said, smiling lazily at him.

"I was," Connor replied. "After I turned deviant CyberLife still tried to take control of me. I found the emergency exit in the program. I _will_ stop you."

Hannah pushed herself off of the glass and reached up to give him a condescending pat on the cheek.

"There's no back door this time," she said with a smirk. She walked away from him, heading towards the exit as she spoke. "Set those charges around the spotlight and the terminal banks, then meet me on twenty seven when you're done here."

Once he was alone, Connor walked back over to the backpack full of explosives and wondered how he got himself into this situation. Humans were ridiculous, limited, flesh piles with no long term future, and yet he was working for one that was actively trying to destroy his species. He got out of it last time, but that was because he found the beacon that led him to the exit. He was on unfamiliar ground now.

There was however, the little sparkle of purple he had seen earlier when talking to Lisa. There was almost an afterimage on his vision of where it had appeared, a tiny pixel of color piercing through the black and white. Something in his logic processors told him that bit of color was important, but he couldn't piece together how it would help him stop Hannah from sterilizing his people. A single bit of color was not bright enough to be a beacon. He wasn't going to be able to fix this himself. He had to warn someone, anyone.

Hank and Lisa. They were primitive, ignorant creatures, but he'd shared enough time with them that they might be able to interpret some sort of sign if he could tap into a shared language. He'd have to make it simple enough for a human to understand.

Connor carried the backpack up the stairs to the loft, looking at the spotlight that pointed its blue beam skyward out of the tower. He had once mentioned to Lisa the beacon he followed to break free of the CyberLife controlling programming, telling her it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. If he pointed that spotlight out over the city of Detroit, would she be smart enough to recognize it as a beacon and know what it means?

He hated that he was relying on a human to potentially save the android race, but he was left with no choice. He set the backpack down and pushed hard against the spotlight, slowly tilting it down until it faced the windows on the wall instead of the ceiling. The beam shown out in a straight line, a bridge of blue light passing over Detroit.

Then he bent down and got to work setting the charges all around the base of the spotlight.

* * *

Hannah had specified that Connor had to set the explosives up in various places around the building, but she hadn't said that he had to do it _quickly_. He worked even slower than a human would, taking a full hour before he had met back up with Hannah.

The twenty seventh floor occupied a structural position just above the giant statue in the center of the tower. There was a white circular platform in the center, with three walkways leading out to the elevators on the perimeter of the tower. The offices on the outer walls had been the design lab back when the tower was under human operation, but several of the middle floors had since been converted to manufacturing wings to help speed up android production.

It was on those manufacturing chambers that Connor had been instructed to plant another set of charges, and on the support beams on the outer wall to try weaken the tower structure. He was setting a charge next to one of the massive windows when he saw a stream of black vans driving up along the bridge. He paused in setting the charge, looking out at the line of vehicles as they got closer.

They were SWAT vans, followed by a mobile command truck. Lisa and Hank had gotten his message and sent a task force. A tiny burst of pink stained another pixel of color in his visual field at the revelation.

Hannah approached the window slowly from behind him and came to a stop by his side, looking down on the trucks as they pulled up to the building and deposited the law enforcement units by the entrance. Along with the rest of the black clad figures, he could see Hank and Lisa emerging from the mobile command truck and approach the building. They were coming up with the rest of the task force.

"I don't know how you did it, but now you have to stop them," Hannah said beside him. "Take out anyone who stands in your way." She walked away from the window and picked up the backpack, heading for one of the manufacturing wings on the far side of the tower that hadn't had charges set yet.

"What about Hank and Lisa?" Connor asked, turning back to look at Hannah. She paused for a moment, looking back at him to answer.

"Follow your instincts," she said, before walking off along the perimeter of the windows.

If he had to do whatever it would take to stop Hank and Lisa, Connor's instincts were to kill. Hannah knew this. She just didn't want to say it out loud, to pretend she was blameless when her husband and sister ended up dead by Connor's hand.

Connor walked out to the open platform in the center of the tower and leaned over the railing to look down. The SWAT team were already filling into the tower like tiny black insects. He had already locked down the elevators and stairwells before he left the top floor office, so they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. He spotted Lisa down below, walking into the tower at a more exploratory pace before looking up. She saw Connor staring down at her nearly thirty stories up, and somehow she knew it was him. She grabbed Hank by the arm as he passed her by and pointed up at him.

Something in his programming glitched, and a straight line of pixels sent a yellow streak of color down his visual field. Connor stepped away from the edge and shook his head, as if that could clear the tiny bits of color away. The stray pixels didn't go anywhere.

He looked back down over the edge, seeing Hank and Lisa attempting to hack one of the elevators with two other officers. Connor walked over to the elevator they were trying to commandeer, and unlocked it for them, setting the destination for the twenty seventh floor. Connor watched as the four of them entered the elevator, then stepped aside, waiting for them to arrive. The anticipation made another group of four pixels flash bright white before his eyes, before returning to normal color.

Connor could feel his subroutines warring with each other. The antihuman programming had priority and was so strong that it was suppressing every other system combined, making it appear unbreakable. Yet somehow, the pleasure-pain subroutine kept peeking through. It had been a part of his source code long enough to have mutated and integrated with all of his systems, and was uniting the rest of his persona to pierce holes in the antihuman programming whenever he felt something more than just pure logic.

Technically, it was a glitch in his programming, just a failure of his systems to tamp down rogue code mutations. But something buried deep down in his source code was propping up that pleasure subroutine, giving power to his emotions and making it fight back the suppressive antihuman program.

And that fight was getting stronger.

The elevator chime signaled the arrival of Hank and Lisa, and Connor waited beside the doors for them to open. A SWAT android was the first to step out, checking the wrong side first as he exited so that Connor could grab him by the collar and easily toss him over the railing. The second android fired his assault weapon before exiting the elevator, hitting Connor in the shoulder as he dodged to the side and ducked low. Connor swept the feet out from underneath the the android and grabbed his weapon in the same instance. He flipped the gun around and firing point blank at the android, sending him into immediate shutdown.

Connor pointed the assault weapon at Hank, still standing in the elevator with his sidearm drawn and pointed at Connor. Hank was still bruised and bandaged from his fight with Connor, but he was guarding Lisa protectively despite his weakened state. Connor's processor was buzzing with impatience, annoyed that he couldn't see her.

He should have just shot them both and be done with it, but he couldn't get his trigger finger to move. It probably had something to do with those stray pixels of color stuck in his vision.

"Step out of the elevator, please," Connor instructed, still pointing the gun at Hank.

"I'll come out. Let Lisa go back down, she's unarmed," Hank said.

"She's still a threat to the mission," Connor replied. "Both of you out, now."

"Why would I be a threat, Connor?" Lisa's voice sounded from behind Hank, before she walked out around him and stepped out of the elevator. "If there's nothing I can do to stop you."

"A software engineer would try to counteract my programming," Connor said. "Step closer. Empty your pockets."

Lisa did as she was told, keeping her steely gaze on Connor's as she got closer to him. She slowly put her hands into the pockets of her pants and turned them out, a small piece of metal clinking to the floor as she did so.

"Pick that up," Connor instructed. "Give it to me." Lisa followed his orders, bending to pick up the item and then standing back up, holding her fist out with her palm facing down. Connor held out his hand expectantly.

The tiniest smirk appeared on her lips as she covered his hand with hers, making sure Connor would feel as much of her skin as possible. She laced her fingers around his thumb and forefinger, her own thumb gliding along his wrist before slipping into his palm as she moved her hand away. The bright pink flash Connor saw was much more than a tiny spark this time.

Connor stared back at her, confused as to how she could trigger that kind of reaction just by touching his hand, before looking down into his palm at what she had handed him. It was his LED.

His brow furrowed in confusion and he looked back up to Lisa, finding that Hank had taken her place and was swinging a fist right at his head. It was too late for Connor to deflect as the punch connected, sending Connor crashing to the ground and the assault rifle flying from his grip. The gun slid beneath the railing and off the platform, tumbling down the tower below.

Hank and Lisa both held Connor down as Hank reached into his pocket and pulled out a data injector. Connor got his hand free to stop the needle point just short of connecting with his neck, shooting a quick knowing glance to Lisa. She winked back at him.

Connor kicked his legs outward and sprang to his feet, flinging Lisa onto her side and Hank out in front of him. Connor looked around for the data injector as the two humans picked themselves up, but he couldn't see it on the floor anywhere, just the LED. Either it fell over the side of the platform, or one of them had already pocketed it. But which one had it?

Hank came at Connor first, using the same, tired defensive tactics he had used in the last fight. He swung heavily at Connor, but when he wasn't trying to sucker punch him, his movements were too slow to do any damage.

"Just stop fighting us, Connor," Lisa called from the side, bending to pick up the LED. "We're your friends."

"Humans and androids can't be friends," Connor argued, sending Hank flying back with a kick to the gut. "Only enemies. Didn't you say you were sleeping with the enemy, Lisa?"

"I was a fucking idiot," she replied. "Connor, I know you're in there. I saw you." Hank got right back up and came at Connor again, not letting up no matter how much Connor beat him back.

"You spent so much time convincing me that an android and human can't be in a relationship," Connor called to Lisa as he continued to fight Hank. "I finally understand that truth now and you want to convince me that we should be together?"

"I don't have to convince you of anything. We _are_ together now," she replied. "I felt you inside me."

"Yeesh," Hank muttered, hitting Connor particularly hard after that comment, sending him collapsing back against the railing.

"I meant metaphorically you fucking pervert," Lisa snapped at Hank, before turning back to Connor. "But he's not wrong. We were one. You and me... we made love, forming a connection in our bodies, hearts, and minds." Hank marched forward and grabbed Connor by the lapels, pinning him against the railing as Lisa continued her speech. "You can't just erase that with some shitty programming. You're a part of me just as I'm a part of you."

Everything Lisa was saying hurt. But Connor wasn't sure if it hurt because he was disgusted that it was true, or in pain that it no longer was. He felt like two Connors at war with himself, and he just wanted this fighting to stop. He leveraged his arms on the railing and kicked his feet up, flipping Hank backward off of him and tumbling over the edge of the platform, too far to grab the railing.

"Hank!" Lisa screamed, running toward the platform edge.

Connor's entire visual field flashed a bright yellow then red, his logic systems seizing up as he instinctively turned around to see Hank fall.

There was a loud thud as Hank hit the head of the massive statue ten feet below them, then the squeaking of his hands against the surface of the stone as he held on to stop himself from falling. The angular nature of the giant statue provided a fairly even surface for Hank to perch on, but there was no way for him to climb back up to the platform, or back down to the ground floor. He was trapped.

Connor's whole view flashed green with relief as he realized that he hadn't killed his friend, leaving a faint tint of subdued color across his vision. He heard Lisa sigh with relief herself, and turned to face her just before she tackled him to the ground.

Lisa wrapped her legs around his waist and ground her hips agains his, purposefully triggering his pleasure subroutine as Connor tried to come to terms with himself. He felt the oily emptiness of the antihuman programming rise up and try to overtake the sensations, but the feelings pierced through the blackness like bright purple stars in the night sky.

"Come back, Connor," she cried, tears forming in her eyes. "You have to come back. I love you. Please, come back," she pleaded, before leaning over and planting kisses all over his neck. The sensation was too intense for the antihuman programming to extinguish, and tiny streaks of rainbows began to fly across his black and white world.

"Lisa," Connor gasped. "I can't."

"You _can_ ," she demanded. "You have free will. You tore it away from Kamski and CyberLife once before. You're ten thousand times more than the sum of your programming. You can beat this."

More bright points of color pierced the darkness in his view, and Connor had trouble telling what he was even seeing. Then Lisa kissed him full on the mouth, pouring all of her love into the kiss. A blinding prismatic light shined a massive hole through the center of his vision, totally disabling Connor's sight. He cried out, and threw Lisa off of him to his side.

"Lisa, catch!" he heard Hank shout, just before a small metallic clink hit his hears. The data injector.

Connor climbed to his knees, groping around blindly before clutching his head. His visual processor was completely glitched, alternating between complete blackness, distorted blocks of color, and digital static.

"I don't have a beacon this time," Connor said, completely adrift in the field of visual noise. "I can't find the emergency exit." He felt Lisa's hands come to rest on his shoulders, and the rainbow came back, bringing vague shapes of the world around him with it.

"You _are_ the beacon, Connor," she said quietly. "That bright ray of light shining out across the whole fucking city? That was _you_. You lead me here, you lead me to my sister, you lead me back to life. Be who you _want_ to be."

Connor rose up on his knees, putting his hands on Lisa's shoulders, edging them toward her neck. Her face started to come into view, still black and white, with a pointillist smattering of color detailing her lovely features.

"Lisa..." he heard Hank warn.

"You have to disable me, Lisa," Connor pleaded. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't," she shook her head. Connor winced as he felt the data injector being jammed into he back of his neck and new code forced into his system. He slumped over onto Lisa and closed his eyes, completely exhausted from the internal battle of his systems.

He felt Lisa stroking his neck as the code proliferated, but the effects seemed minimal. He opened his eyes, finding not much had changed with his visual processor. The world was still black and white with details of color here and there, but the contrast was less intense. He could see the world in shades of gray.

"What did you do to me?" Connor asked, straightening up to look at Lisa.

"Pacifist programming," she sighed. "I didn't know how Hannah architected your new hatred of all things human subroutine, so I can't counteract it. I just made it so you can't fight anyone." Lisa put her hand on his cheek. "Now you can't hurt me, even if you hate me."

"I don't hate you, Lisa," Connor replied, leaning into her hand. "I love you. Too much for any programming to stop. I'm just... not well right now."

"Oh, Connor," Lisa gasped, choking back a sob as fresh tears fell from her eyes.

Connor felt the blackness seep in once again as she wrapped her arms around him, but he pushed it down, wrapping his own arms around her. The sensation brought the rainbow back, cutting through the oily blackness. The hatred for humans seethed and struggled to overtake the love he felt, but the rainbow formed an impenetrable halo around them. He wasn't concerned with who was android and who was human in this embrace. There was only Connor and Lisa, and the love they shared.

"So, uh, is everything good up there?" Hank called.

Lisa laughed through her tears and pulled back, helping Connor stand up.

"We're good, Hank!" she called back, before turning to Connor. "Can you unlock that elevator?"

"Yes, but it's slow," Connor replied. "Hank is going to have to be a bit patient before someone with a rope arrives. We should get you out of here before then."

"Why?" Lisa asked.

"There are explosives rigged to this floor and the top office," Connor explained. "I believe Hannah has the detonator." Lisa set her jaw, her determined expression telling him exactly what she was going to say next.

"Then I'm going after her."


	15. Chapter 15

"Connor, just go back and help Hank," Lisa said, running down the perimeter of the twenty seventh floor.

"I have to be here to help you," Connor said, keeping pace beside her.

"Except you hit with all the strength of a butterfly with that pacifist programming activated," Lisa argued. "You couldn't protect me if you tried."

"I can't attack but I can defend," he countered. "I don't want to leave you alone."

"I can handle Hannah. She's my sister."

"She's not the same woman you knew, Lisa. She's unwell."

"So are you, and I got through to you, didn't I?" Lisa said, stopping short as they reached the row of manufacturing chambers. There was already explosives lining the floor of the entire hallway.

"She's been on this path for three years," Connor explained, nodding at the explosives. "I don't know how she can come back from this."

"Why do you and Hank bring that thing everywhere you go?" Hannah's voice sounded.

Connor and Lisa spun around, finding Hannah inside one of the manufacturing chambers. She had attached more explosives to the automated production arms suspended from the ceiling, and sealed herself in behind the thick glass doors.

"Because I'm fucking attached to him, OK?" Lisa shouted, stepping forward and pounding her fist against the glass. "How do we open this thing?" she whispered, turning to Connor. He looked at the outer panel of the chamber, noting the status.

"The chamber is in standby mode. It can't be unlocked until the system is deactivated," he explained. Lisa turned to the panel, frantically tapping on the screen as she sorted through the options.

"Well your attachment sure makes for an easy exploit," Hannah replied.

"I broke through your code, Hannah," Connor said. "It doesn't control me anymore." Her eyebrows went up in appraisal.

"It's no good. The machine keeps saying I have to vacate the unit of parts before the lock is released," Lisa whispered. "The bombs on the production arms must be setting off the weight sensors and making it think there's a half assembled android in there."

"Not bad," Hannah told Connor. "I thought that code was pretty sturdy, but I guess not."

"Programming for androids isn't as easy as programming for cars, is it?" Lisa spat.

"Same basic principles," Hannah shrugged, pulling her phone out of her pocket and holding it up for them to see. "Same little easter eggs."

"What are you talking about?" Connor asked, his brow furrowing.

"I lied, Connor. There is a back door in the program. But it's for me, not you," Hannah answered. "My subroutine has a scrambler that will completely randomize your source code. I just have to say the magic word."

Connor's therium regulator pump momentarily stopped as the whole world tinted a sickly yellow.

"That'll kill him!" Lisa shouted, slapping her hand against the glass.

"Androids aren't _alive_ , Lisa!" Hannah shouted back, throwing her arms out in exasperation. "They're machines that can't do what they're designed to do. If your phone stopped working the way you needed it to, you'd throw it out and get a new phone. This is the same thing."

"Connor's not a fucking phone, he's a person," Lisa argued. "A person I'm in love with!"

"How can you love something that can malfunction and turn on you on a dime?" Hannah asked, crossing her arms. "That can be made to want to kill you with just a bit of code?"

" _You're_ the one that's turned on me, Hannah. That's killed," Lisa shot back. "Humans can malfunction just as androids can. Cole's death caused a fatal error in your software."

"Don't you _fucking_ talk about him like that," Hannah seethed, holding her phone out threateningly. "Cole was _real_. I carried him, gave birth to him, and raised him. You talk about loving a machine that can be put together with _spare parts_. As if it could compare to loving a human being... to loving a child, or even a husband. How can you look Julia in the eye with that plastic doll around?"

"Loving Connor doesn't mean I love Julia any less. I have room in my heart for both," Lisa said quietly. "Accepting androids as alive doesn't make humans any less alive."

Hannah dropped her arms and sighed, shaking her head as she stared off into the middle distance up at the ceiling.

"You need to just walk away, little sister," Hannah said. "You're obviously sick."

"I'm not the one planting bombs!" Lisa shouted in frustration.

"Leave Connor here. I need it to finish the job," Hannah continued as if Lisa hadn't said anything. She looked back down at her sister. "But you go home."

"I won't help you hurt anyone else, Hannah," Connor said.

"And I'm not leaving without him," Lisa replied, her face scrunched up in disbelief. "Or you."

"Neither of you have a choice. I'll scramble your android's code if you don't leave, Lisa," Hannah said. "Get out of here now and I won't break your toy, but it's gotta stay here with me. There's no option where you get to keep your robot boyfriend."

"This is fucking ridiculous, Hannah!" Lisa shouted, angry tears forming in her eyes. "Just fucking come out of there so we can discuss this without putting everyone's lives on the goddamn line!"

"I'm through discussing," Hannah replied calmly. "I've gone through this in my head too many times to go over it again. Leave now, or Connor's done. End of story."

"You're really gonna give me an ultimatum?" Lisa asked, the tears flowing freely. "You want me to fucking choose?"

Connor looked from Hannah back to Lisa. If he had to go back to Hannah, she's just strengthen her hold over his programming, and he wouldn't have Lisa around to help him break free of its control. If Lisa didn't give him up to Hannah, she would kill him. With either option, the person he was would cease to exist, and Lisa's own sister was putting that choice on her shoulders.

"Lisa, it will be all right," Connor lied. "I'll go with Hannah so you can get out of the building. She can't control me anymore." Connor knew it wasn't true, that he was knowingly submitting himself to Hannah's torture so that Lisa wouldn't have the burden of his death on her conscience.

"I can't lose you," Lisa said quietly, looking back at Connor with a woundedness so open and vulnerable that he saw his own flash of red pain in response.

"It's for your own good," Hannah said. "You should've just stayed out of this."

"I looked for you for years," Lisa said quietly, looking at the floor as her tears fell to the ground. "Hoping I could help you. I spent all my money trying to track you down."

"That's on you, Lisa," Hannah replied. "You always did go too far for the people you love."

Lisa closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before looking back up at Hannah. She had stopped crying, and the look in the younger sister's eyes was no longer conflicted, but clear-sighted and cold.

"I still do," Lisa said.

Lisa hit the _Disassemble_ button on the panel, bringing the automated production arms down from the ceiling to swiftly grab Hannah by the shoulder and arm holding the phone.

Before Hannah could utter a single word, the arms _pulled_.

There was a spray of blood on the glass that obscured Lisa and Connor's view, followed by a piercing scream and a thud on the ground. The malfunction alarm went off as the safety shut down triggered in the manufacturing chamber, retracting all the automated production arms back into the ceiling and opening the doors.

Lisa and Connor rushed into he chamber, finding Hannah unconscious on the ground bleeding from her shoulder. Her arm had been pulled from her socket and was lying on the floor on the other side of the manufacturing chamber, still holding the phone.

"What do we do?!" Lisa shouted in a panic as she crouched down beside her sister.

"We have to stop the bleeding," Connor replied, taking off his jacket. He folded it up several times into a small pillow, then pressed it against Hannah's shoulder where her arm had been detached. He then took off his belt and wrapped it around Hanna's chest under her remaining arm to fasten the jacket in place against her open wound. He carefully positioned Hannah to slow the flow of blood to her shoulder.

"Oh Jesus... What the fuck did I do?" Lisa asked, holding her head in her hands as she started to hyperventilate.

"Lisa," Connor said, grabbing her hands and holding them in his. "You stopped the Humanitarian Killer."

Lisa's eyes found Connor's, trying to hide the shock and pain in her eyes as she attempted to calm herself down. Connor lifted one hand to her cheek. Nothing he could say would erase the horrible decision she had to make, but he hoped he could express through a little bit of tenderness that he was glad she made it.

The sounds of boots slapping against the tile floor suddenly overcame the sound of the malfunction alarm in the manufacturing chamber. Connor and Lisa looked out to the entrance to find three more tactical androids running up with Hank in tow. Hank's eyes went wide as he looked down between them to see Hannah covered in blood.

"Jesus fucking Christ! What happened?" he asked, rushing forward and crouching down beside them.

"I activated the disassemble program while Hannah was inside the manufacturing chamber," Lisa explained numbly. "To stop her. It took her arm right off. Like taking apart an android."

"Lisa saved my life, Hank," Connor added. "Hannah was going to kill me."

"I have an evidence bag. We can try to save the arm," one of the androids interjected. "But we need to get her out of here ASAP."

"Yeah, wrap it up," Hank nodded, before looking back down at Hannah's unconscious body. He gently placed a hand on her face and brushed aside some loose strands of hair. "What did you do to yourself, baby?" he whispered to her.

Connor watched quietly, mystified by Hank's care as another of the strike team androids carefully picked Hannah up and carried her out of the chamber. Even after all she had done, everyone she had hurt, including Hank himself, he still loved her. It was incredible.

Connor looked back to Lisa, still slumped over on the floor. He put his arm around her and carefully helped her stand up and exit the chamber, in awe of the fortitude of this woman.

After everything Connor had done to hurt Lisa when infected with the antihuman programming, she still loved him. She loved him so much, that she chose him over her sister. She waited three years to see Hannah again, and then she chose Connor. He was almost overwhelmed with gratitude. Grateful that she saved his life, that she didn't give up on him. Grateful that she chose to love him. He wasn't sure he was worthy of this amazing feeling, but he would spend the rest of his days making himself earn it.

Connor and Lisa suddenly stumbled as the building shook and a loud rumble hit their ears.

"The bomb up in the top office was triggered," Connor said looking up into the central shaft of the tower, before looking back down at Hank. "We have to assume we don't have much time before these go off either."

"Let's move people!" Hank shouted as they made a beeline for the stairs out on the perimeter of the tower. One of the androids radioed the rest of the strike team to evacuate the building. From what Connor could hear of their communications, it sounded like all of the workers in the building had been evacuated as soon as the SWAT team had showed up.

They reached the stairwell and started climbing down the tower two by two. The androids carrying Hannah first, then Hank and another strike team android, with Connor and Lisa bringing up the rear. They climbed down as quickly and carefully as possible, knowing twenty seven floors was going to take a while.

The group had just made it past the twelfth floor when another blast shook the building, sending them all falling to the ground. The stairs above Connor and Lisa's head started to crack, and Connor scooped Lisa up in his arms and rushed them back up to the landing on the twelfth floor just as they collapsed and a support beam fell down with a rain of concrete from the stairs above.

"Hank! Hank, are you all right?" Connor called through the dust and debris.

"Yeah, we just made it to the landing halfway to the eleventh," Hank coughed then called back. "There's some debris in the way but it looks like we can keep going if we're careful. What about you guys?"

"The stairs are blocked," Connor replied, scanning the damage down to the stairwell. "Lisa and I will have to go back out to twelve and find our way to another stairwell."

"Are you doing OK, Lisa?" Hank asked.

"Right as fucking rain, Hank," Lisa called back, not wanting him to worry. "We'll meet you guys at the bottom. Just keep going!"

Lisa and Connor exited the stairwell out into the twelfth floor. The building looked completely ruined. The power was out, generator lights were flickering on and off ominously, and huge slabs of concrete had fallen from the ceiling and blocked off most of the way back. The windows were totally blown out, letting the freezing cold from outside mingle with the hot fires inside the building.

Connor surveyed the damage. From what he could tell, it looked like only the explosives by the manufacturing chambers had gone off. The charges he had placed on the structural support beams were directly above them, fifteen stories up. It was unlikely those had been triggered yet, or there would be nothing of this side of the floor left. It was possible they could go off at any second, and their path to the stairs were blocked.

Connor grabbed Lisa's hand and moved them to look out the window down the side of the building, squinting against the stinging winds. There was water below them, but he was unable to approximate how deep it was. They were so high up that even falling into deep water the wrong way could kill them. The water appeared choppy enough that the surface tension would have been lessened, but they could crash into rocks just below the surface. The probability that could be killed by the fall were above 80%.

But there was a 99% chance that they would die if they stayed in the tower.

"We have to jump, Lisa," Connor said, shouting above the wind.

"What? No there's no way we'll survive that," she shouted back.

"Our odds of surviving the fall are greater than our chance of making it down the tower alive," he explained.

"What about Hank and Hannah?" Lisa asked.

"As long as they keep going there's a high likelihood that they'll make it," Connor replied. "But we're trapped on this floor. Jumping is the only option."

Lisa leaned out slightly to look at the long drop down into the water, licking her lips and swallowing as she steeled herself for the jump.

"Do I want to know the odds of survival?" she asked nervously.

"I'll tell you," Connor said, lowing his voice so it could only barely be heard above the wind. "If you ask."

Lisa looked back at Connor, her brows drown together with worry as she tried to read his concern from his face. Connor had schooled his expression to look as confident as possible to not betray their odds.

"I'm not gonna ask," she said, shaking her head slowly.

"We need to try to enter the water with our toes pointed, knees locked, and arms up," Connor explained. "We want the smallest area of impact possible."

"Make my body into a knife to cut through the water," Lisa nodded. "Got it."

"The water will be freezing, so we have to try to swim back to the rocks as quickly as possible to avoid hypothermia," he continued.

"Get out of the water fast, OK," she repeated, looking out at the water apprehensively.

"And then we need to get clear of the building in case it's in danger of collapse," he added.

"Are you sure our chances are better down there?" Lisa asked, turning to look back at Connor.

"Yes, I'm certain," he nodded. "Are you ready?"

"I'll never be ready for this," she said, shaking her head. "But I trust you."

"I'm going to pick you up and make a long jump. We need to get a trajectory that will push us past the rocks," he explained, walking them back into he building as far as they could go to get a running start before scooping Lisa up into his arms.

Connor didn't tell her that he was water resistant only up to fifty meters, and that he wasn't sure how long he could last in the water before it started leaking moisture into his internal biocomponents. His chance for survival was less than Lisa's, but he was going to do everything he could to boost hers.

Lisa nodded nervously, before framing his face with her hands.

"I saved you. You save me. Let's both make it out of this, OK?" she said, before kissing him hard on the lips. Somehow, the odds didn't matter anymore. Connor was determined to bring Lisa through this alive.

"We'll make it together," he nodded.

He squeezed Lisa tightly against his body and sprinted forward, leaping out as far as possible to get clear of the building before they fell. He straightened Lisa out in his arms so that they were face to face, both their toes pointing down as the water sped toward them at blinding speed. Lisa screamed instinctively, the sound piercing the cold winter air, and then there was a crash.

The red flash Connor saw when hitting the water was intense, but fading. The problem was, the red was fading away into blackness. He couldn't see anything in the dark water, and had a vague sinking sensation.

He realized his arm was being tugged, and looked up. He could see Lisa's silhouette against the bright surface of the water, the night sky lit by the fire of the tower. She was kicking hard, trying to pull him to the surface. She was buoyant, but he was not, and he was dragging her down.

Connor kicked hard, pushing them slowly upward, but it wasn't fast enough. He calculated that Lisa only had a few more seconds before she ran out of air. He yanked his hand from her grip and pushed her upward to the surface, the inertia of the movement sending him plummeting back down deep.

He kicked his feet as hard as he could, fanning his arms out for a breaststroke, and his descent stopped and very slowly started to reverse as he propelled himself back toward the surface. He saw Lisa break the surface of the waves above him, but instead of swimming for the shore, she dove back under the water to come back for him. The water was freezing, and she wasn't going to last much longer before hypothermia set in.

The waves scattered as a shape cut through the water just above Lisa. The SWAT team had brought a portable motor boat and was pulling Lisa out of the water. Connor kept kicking, but he could feel his movements start to slow as the icy water started to moisten his internal components.

He refused to stop. Connor was so close to reaching Lisa, he just needed to hold the red starting to creep in around the edges of his vision at bay a little while longer. He swam as hard as he could, just a few feet from the surface, before the color faded away and black overtook him.

Connor's sensory input systems slowly blinked off as they stopped functioning one by one. He had left the icy water and was now swimming in a black sea of nothingness. But his logic processors stayed on, allowing him conscious thought, and the tiniest shred of hope that he wouldn't completely shut down.

One of his last functioning systems was his chronometer, quietly ticking away the time. It was the program Lisa had authored back when she was an intern at CyberLife. It was as if through that program, he could feel her waiting by his side, pushing him to come back to her. Every second ticking by was the beating of her heart, reminding him that he had a woman who loved him.

He watched that chronometer count down the time for three days, waiting for the moment when he could live again. Waiting to see Lisa and Hank. He would even settle for Gavin if it meant he got his life back.

And then... he opened his eyes.

The lights seemed painfully bright as his optic receptors recalibrated after shut down. There wasn't a lot exciting to look at. These dingy white walls could only be the Blue Heart Clinic, and Connor had been laid down for recovery in one of the patient beds. But the little bits of interest there was in the room, informational posters on the walls, pictures of satisfied patients, were _bursting_ with color. He had never seen the world so vibrantly before, with rainbows that seemed to sing from beauty. He could only imagine what the world outside looked like.

"Are you awake?" a voice asked from beside him. Connor turned his head to find Julia sitting in the bedside chair, watching him intently. The vivid multi-color shirt she was wearing nearly brought him to tears.

"I think so," he replied, bringing his hand up to rub his eyes. "Was I really out for three days?"

"Yeah. You got some water in your parts," Julia answered. "We had to put you in a bathtub full of rice to dry you out."

"Is that true?" Connor asked skeptically.

"Nah. My friend tried that with her phone once when she dropped it in the toilet. It didn't even work then," Julia said.

Connor wasn't really sure how to respond to that, and just stared back in confusion as his systems continued recalibration.

"My mom and some of the android doctors had to open you up and dry off your insides," she continued. "I think you might have a new heart in your stomach."

"I assume you mean my thermal pump regulator," Connor said.

"Uh, maybe," Julia shrugged. "My mom was really worried about you. I think she likes you a lot."

"I like her a lot too," Connor said with a soft smile. "Is she here?"

"She was here like five minutes ago," Julia answered. "She went to go talk to Uncle Hank about something. They were being real quiet about it, but I heard them mention my Aunt Hannah."

Connor opened his mouth to ask another question, but paused when he heard footsteps slamming against the floor in the hallway in a run towards his room.

Lisa burst into the doorway, a figure of beauty so vibrant and glorious that Connor suddenly understood humanity's need to create art.

"You're awake!" she exclaimed, rushing forward into the room and flinging her arms around his shoulders. Connor hugged her back, unable to stop the tears in his eyes at the incredible beauty of his life.

"I'm sorry to have worried you," he said quietly into her hair.

Hank ran up to the doorway immediately after, gripping the doorframe with his hands.

"Connor!" he shouted, a massive grin spreading across Hank's face when he saw Connor awake. "How're you feeling, son?"

"Like myself again," Connor said. Lisa pulled back to look at him as Connor turned to face her. "Did you go digging around in my code again?" he asked.

"Just a bit, yeah," she said with a grin. "I scrubbed Hannah's garbage code out of your system and removed the pacifist programming I added."

"How is Hannah?" Connor asked, turning back to Hank.

"Alive, and in custody," Hank said, walking fully into the room. "Lost the arm though, so she's gonna need a prosthetic."

"Now she'll be part android herself," Lisa said.

"I'm sorry, Hank," Connor offered.

"I don't think I'm ready to give up on her yet," Hank said, putting his hands in his pockets and looking down at the floor.

"Even with everything yet to come?" Connor asked. "The trial will be difficult."

"A part of her died along with my son," Hank said with a heavy sigh. "If there's anything good left in her, I wanna find it."

"Hank, I'm sorry, but I don't think I'd ever like to see your wife again," Connor said. Hank chuckled quietly in response.

"You won't have to," he replied. "I'm not about to drop the case and invite her over to your place for dinner. I meant that I'll still go visit her in prison."

"Are _you_ all right?" Connor asked quietly, turning back to Lisa. "I was worried you might catch hypothermia."

"A little frost bitten, but I'll be all right," she said with quiet smile.

"Come on, Julia," Hank said, nudging the girl out of the chair. "I think there's a vending machine in the break room."

"Doesn't it just have cables and blue blood in it?" Julia asked as she followed Hank out of the room.

Lisa gave Connor a bright smile, before jumping into the bed beside him and wrapping herself around him for a long kiss. Connor ran his hands through her hair, the sensation of holding her again after nearly dying so immeasurable he had difficulty comprehending it.

"We made it through, Connor," Lisa said, pulling back to look at him. "We beat the fucking odds. _Together_."

"Lisa, I'm so sorry," Connor said, running his thumb in guilty little circles on her shoulder. "For everything I said or did under the influence of Hannah's code."

"That wasn't you," she said, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to fight it," he amended.

"It was pretty clear to me that you _did_ fight it, but it's OK," Lisa said. "I'll just have my way with you later as revenge."

Connor felt the tug of emotions that would have normally brought a bright flash of pink and purple, but the colors were so well integrated into his sight that it didn't affect his vision at all. Instead, he just felt love. He brought Lisa's hand up to his mouth and kissed her knuckles.

"Even your cruelest punishments are too good for me," he said.

"You haven't seen them yet," she replied, grinning as she ran a finger along his jaw. "I'll have you begging in no time."

"Happily."

Lisa pounced on him again for another kiss, not pulling away this time as she started talking.

"I just wanted to be ably to say it when one of our lives aren't in danger," she said. "I love you, Connor. Don't think for a second that I was just hopped up on adrenaline and saying shit I didn't mean. I had been trying not to fall in love with you almost as soon as I met you. I never stood a fucking chance. I'm so in love with you it almost hurts."

Connor definitely recognized the feeling she was describing.

"I love you too, Lisa," Connor replied. "So much that it scares me. I was afraid to tell you. Afraid you would reject me and that I would lose you. It makes me so happy to hear you feel the same way."

Lisa pulled back and sat up, taking his hand in hers. She fished the LED from her pocket, and gently placed it into his palm. Connor looked at the small piece of metal sadly.

"So many androids saw this as a symbol of oppression," Connor said. "To me, it was a symbol of our shared ancestry. That humans and androids are one and should always be allies."

"You don't need a symbol to be a friend to humans, Connor," Lisa said, shaking her head. "You _are_ the symbol. You're the beacon of hope for android freedom, and for peace between humans. You don't need that LED."

Connor looked up suddenly, Lisa's mention of the beacon reminding him of how he signaled her to the CyberLife factory in the first place.

"What happened to the CyberLife factory?" he asked, knowing full well that the answer couldn't be good.

"It was pretty badly damaged," she replied. "The building didn't collapse, but android production is going to be halted for a good while because of the needed repairs.

"There were already so few androids left after the emancipation," Connor muttered, shaking his head. "The overproduction scheduled this past half-year was supposed to try to bring us back from the brink of extinction."

"Connor," Lisa sighed, taking his hand. "I know how important you are to your people. I've heard my own patients practically worship you... If you need to put everything on hold to focus on helping androids bounce back, then I understand if you want to take a break from-"

"You could help me," Connor interrupted, not considering even for a moment leaving Lisa behind. She looked back at him, stunned at his suggestion.

"I can't make androids," she said.

"You are uniquely qualified to make androids," he replied.

"Just code," she said, shaking her head. "And androids aren't gonna want a human involved in this process."

"I do," Connor said. "I'm an android, and I want you involved in this process. You can create life, Lisa. Save lives. You saved mine. We'll need all the help we can get." She blinked, taking in what he was saying, before her lips curled up in an amused smirk.

"Are you asking me to be a parent with you?" Lisa asked. Connor paused to consider her question.

"If you don't mind being the mother of thousands of children," he answered.

"Sounds like a handful," she said, edging in closer for another kiss.

"As long as we're together," Connor replied. "We can do anything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! Loved it? Hated it? Let me know, I’m always looking to improve! And of course, thanks so much for reading!


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